Kennedy Stewart wins a narrow victory over NPA's Ken Sim in Vancouver mayoral race

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      It was the closest Vancouver mayoral race of many voters' lifetimes, but in the end, Kennedy Stewart pulled it off—pending any judicial recount.

      The former NDP MP ended up with a 984-vote lead over the NPA's Ken Sim with all 133 polls reporting.

      Stewart collected 49,812 votes, accounting for 28.72 percent of all mayoral votes. Sim won 48,828 votes, winding up with 28.15 percent.

      In third place was independent Shauna Sylvester with 20.49 percent. She received 35,537 votes.

      Rounding out the top seven were Coalition Vancouver's Wai Young (6.85 percent), Yes Vancouver's Hector Bremner (5.73 percent), Vancouver 1st's Fred Harding (3.25 percent), and ProVancouver's David Chen (2.06 percent).

      In his acceptance speech, Stewart suggested he wouldn't be an overly partisan mayor.

      "I will work with every single person, no matter their political background or their political party," Stewart promised.

      It looked for much of the night like Stewart was safely in the lead, but after 11 p.m., there was a wild change when Sim gained more than 2,000 votes back, bringing him within around 300 votes.

      But Stewart's lead grew in subsequent polls.

      His vote total was the least for any mayoral candidate in more than 20 years. In 1996, Philip Owen won 50,969 votes when only 97,803 votes were cast.

      This year, 176,744 votes were cast.

      Stewart said in his first 100 days, he will ensure that a renters' advocate is hired so that tenants have access to legal advice.

      He's also promised a Downtown Eastside emergency task force to address the opioid crisis. And Stewart plans to launch a mayor's review of small business to examine taxes and permitting issues.

      Another of his pledges is to create a lobbyists registry to bring more transparency to city hall.

      On the housing front, Stewart intends to make sure that 85,000 units are built over the next decade, including 25,000 nonprofit rentals.

      The NPA won five of the 10 council seats. Melissa De Genova, Colleen Hardwick, Lisa Dominato, Rebecca Bligh, and Sarah Kirby-Yung were all elected.

      Three Greens were elected: Coun. Adriane Carr, who topped the polls, second-place finisher Pete Fry, and Michael Wiebe.

      The other two spots were captured by COPE's Jean Swanson and OneCity's Christine Boyle.

      It gives the progressive parties a narrow 6-5 lead on council.

      Carr topped the polls with 69,885 votes, followed by 61,925 for Fry.

      Eight of the 10 councillors are women.

      Michael Wiebe, Pete Fry, Estie Gonzalez, and Adriane Carr were all elected as the Greens became a formidable force in Vancouver politics.

      It's a mostly white council in a diverse city

      After the swearing-in ceremony, the only councillor of colour will be Pete Fry. His Trinidad-born mother, Hedy Fry, is the Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre.

      The NPA's David Grewal came 11th, narrowly missing becoming the first Vancouver councillor of Punjabi ancestry.

      Coming 12th was the Greens' David Wong. It means that for the first time since the 1986 election, not a single candidate of Chinese ancestry was elected to Vancouver city council.

      Former Musqueam council member Wade Grant was trying to become the first Indigenous person elected to city council. He won 15,420 votes, coming 29th as an independent.

      Another independent, Taqdir Bhandal, was hoping to be the first woman of South Asian descent to be elected to council. She end up in 30th place with 15,347 votes.

      The next-highest ranking independent council candidate was arts and LGBT community advocate Rob McDowell with 11,389 votes.

      Vision Vancouver was slaughtered in the council race, with its highest-ranking finisher being incumbent Heather Deal, who came 13th. COPE's Derrick O'Keefe came 14th.

      Vision's Tanya Paz came 20th, Diego Cardona was 21st, and Catherine Evans was 22nd.

      The highest-ranking independent was Sarah Blyth, who came 19th.

      Independent Erin Shum was 23rd and independent Adrian Crook was 25th.

      The best result for a Coalition Vancouver candidate was Ken Charko's 27th-place finish.

      Greens topped school and park board races

      In the park board election, the three Greens—incumbent Stuart Mackinnon, Dave Demers, and Camil Dumont—took the top spots.

      Two NPA candidates were elected: incumbent John Coupar and Tricia Barker.

      The two other spots were won by COPE's Gwen Giesbrecht and John Irwin.

      Irwin ended up 250 votes ahead of the eighth-place finisher, the NPA's Ann-Marie Copping.

      The three Green candidates were elected to school board as well. Incumbents Janet Fraser and Estrellita Gonzalez came first and second, and Lois Chan-Pedley came seventh in her first run for office.

      OneCity's Jennifer Reddy, Vision Vancouver's Allan Wong, and COPE's Barbara Parrot were also elected.

      Three NPA candidates have been elected as trustees: Oliver Hansen, Fraser Ballantyne, and Carmen Cho.

      COPE's second school board candidate, Diana Day, narrowly missed becoming a trustee when she came eighth. Day came from the Oneida Nation and was hoping to advance initiatives at the board level to help more Indigenous students succeed in Vancouver school system. 

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