NPA selects Ken Sim as mayoral candidate
Members of Vancouver’s most established political party chose a successful businessman who said he’ll be a “change agent” to manage a city at a crossroads, as their next mayoral candidate as they try to take back city hall this year.
Ken Sim will be the Non-Partisan Association’s mayoral candidate for October’s municipal election, when the party, which has dominated Vancouver politics for most of its 81-year existence, will try to avoid a fourth consecutive electoral loss after a decade out of power.
Sim beat out two other candidates: two-term park board commissioner John Coupar and selfstyled civic government watchdog Glen Chernen.
Party officials said about 2,100 ballots were cast over the course of the day Sunday, out of around
4,500 eligible ballots.
In their speeches Sunday evening at the Hellenic Centre in Vancouver’s Arbutus Ridge neighbourhood, the three candidates largely stuck to the key points they’ve repeated throughout the nomination process.
Chernen portrayed himself as the “outsider” candidate, not beholden to the city’s powerful establishment and a “disrupter” who can shake things up and fix what he says is a broken city hall. Coupar described himself as the “stability” candidate, the only one of the three with elected experience.
Sim touted his business acumen, managerial experience, and ability to bring energy and effect change.
Minutes before the three candidates each addressed the crowd at 6 p.m., the NPA’s last mayoral candidate, Kirk LaPointe, chatted with party members and elected officials.
LaPointe said he believed many of the members were still undecided as to which way to vote.
“I think these speeches are important,” he said. “There are a lot of loose delegates here.”
NPA president Gregory Baker introduced the three candidates, saying right now is “a very exciting time for us in the NPA.”
The party currently has more than 5,000 active members, up from fewer than 100 wmembers last July, Baker said, before concluding with: “I’m very excited about our chances of taking back city hall.”
Housing is expected to be the top issue, by far, in Vancouver’s municipal election this year. And on Sunday — a day when, coincidentally, the front page of the New York Times included a story about Vancouver’s “housing frenzy” — it was no surprise that the subject came up repeatedly in the three candidates’ speeches.
Chernen told the assembled crowd about his work investigating real estate deals in the city, saying he feels the city has been badly mismanaged for the past decade. Coupar said he wanted to speed up the city’s approval process to build more housing and review the overall city plan. Sim said he worried his children and grandchildren might not be able to live in an increasingly unaffordable city.
Chernen spoke first, telling the crowd the election is “definitely ours to lose.”
Chernen, who has been a vocal critic in recent years of what he describes as mismanagement in civic government, described himself an outsider and a “large thorn in the side of Gregor Robertson.”
Next up, two-term NPA park board commissioner John Coupar talked about the need for “stability” at city hall.
“Vancouver needs an even hand on the wheel. We need stability managing,” Coupar said. “I have the experience to be that kind of leader.”
Ken Sim, co-founded of home health care company Nurse Next Door, spoke last, stepping off the stage and speaking from the floor of the venue. He told stories of his own humble upbringing in Vancouver, the son of immigrant parents.
“I love Vancouver. But as we all know, Vancouver is at a crossroads right now,” Sim said. “I am tired of talking to people who tell me they are leaving our city. We are losing our best and brightest every single day.”
While the NPA, a one-time NPA mayoral hopeful rejected by the party board last month is now expected to be one of Sim’s opponents in this year’s race. NPA Coun. Hector Bremner, whose bid for the NPA mayoral nomination was shot down in early May, announced two weeks later he was looking to start their own party and run a slate for October’s election.
Bremner’s team is expected to hold an event Monday evening, at which more details may emerge about their plans.
Adrian Crook, one of the council candidates expected to appear alongside Bremner’s team Monday, was in the crowd at Sunday’s NPA meeting. Crook was previously seeking the NPA nomination to run for council, but publicly disavowed the party after Bremner’s candidacy was rejected. His party membership still valid, Crook decided to attend Sunday’s event “as a tourist,” he said, confirming he planned to be at Bremner’s event Monday.