ABC Vancouver outspent nearest challenger by almost 2:1 margin in municipal election
ABC Vancouver outspent nearest challenger by almost 2:1 margin in municipal election
Ken Sim addresses supporters after being declared the next mayor of Vancouver, on Oct. 15, 2022.
Mayor Ken Sim's A Better City Vancouver party spent nearly twice as much as any other party on last year's municipal elections, according to data released by Elections BC Thursday.
Financial disclosure statements released by the non-partisan office indicate that ABC spent nearly $1.7 million on its city council and mayoral campaigns, along with more than $400,000 on its Vancouver School Board campaign.
Former mayor Kennedy's Stewart's ill-fated "Forward Together" party spent the next-highest amount, at not quite $1.1 million. Forward Together did not run any candidates for the VSB, however, meaning its total was barely more than half of the combined $2.1 million ABC spent.
No other municipal party in Vancouver spent anywhere close to those totals.
The Non-Partisan Association spent the next-highest amount, at just under $640,000 on mayor and council candidates, plus $17,000 on the school board race. None of the NPA's candidates were elected.
In terms of converting expenditures into seats, the Green Party was perhaps the most efficient party, electing two city councillors, two school board trustees and the only non-ABC member of the park board on roughly $162,000 of spending (approximately $45,000 of which was spent on the VSB election).
OneCity Vancouver, which was the only other party to win a seat on council, spent $354,000 on that race, plus another $81,000 on the school board race, where it also won one seat.
Looking at the amount of money each party raised again shows ABC with a decisive advantage.
The party reported more than $1.4 million in total income for its city council and mayoral campaigns, plus $361,000 for its school board campaign.
Forward Together reported $618,000 in total income, less than half of ABC's haul.
Notably, a sizeable portion of ABC's income – roughly $414,000 – is listed as "other income" in the party's filings, rather than campaign contributions from individuals.
A breakdown of the party's "other income" lists the sources of those funds as Ken Sim and council candidates Lisa Dominato, Rebecca Bligh, Sarah Kirby-Yung and Peter Meiszner.
Sim is listed as the source of $275,000, provided in three chunks – $100,000 in August, $150,000 in October and $25,000 in November, after the election.
Dominato is listed as the source of more than $80,000 across three contributions. Bligh provided $25,000 across four installments, and Kirby-Yung and Meiszner provided funding on one occasion each, for just less than $31,000 and nearly $3,000, respectively.
Police in Halifax say three people have been stabbed and a student is in custody following a weapons complaint at a high school in Bedford, N.S. The victims were taken to hospital for treatment, but the extent of their injuries is not yet known.
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
In an effort to keep the foreign interference story at the forefront, and to do an apparent end run around the Liberal filibuster blocking one study from going ahead, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has forced the House to spend the day debating a motion instructing an opposition-dominated House committee to strike its own review.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap.
In the previous century, the spring equinox typically fell on March 21, but the first day of spring has slowly been moving. Here's why next year it will fall on March 19, for the first time since the 1800s.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
A Victoria artist who builds life-sized sculptures of local wildlife entirely out of driftwood is bringing her works to downtown Victoria to help fundraise for Wild ARC, an animal rehabilitation centre in Metchosin, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo are asking the public for help identifying two women accused of shoplifting. The women were caught on a surveillance camera at Sally Beauty, located at 6894 Island Highway North, just before 4 p.m. on Jan. 21.
An 11-year-old boy was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition after being struck by a vehicle in the northwest Calgary neighbourhood of Royal Oak.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Jason Copping will give an update on the effort to import and distribute children's pain and fever medicine Monday afternoon.
A driver from New York who was allegedly caught going nearly double the speed limit in Ontario told police they 'didn’t realize' speed signs weren’t posted in miles per hour.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Quebec provincial police (SQ) announced Monday morning that a third person has died in connection with the tragedy in Amqui, in the Lower St. Lawrence region, where a driver drove his pickup truck into pedestrians a week ago.
Manitoba is planning to create an integrated missing persons response unit, sharing information between police agencies, CFS and Indigenous advocates when someone goes missing.
A 34-year-old woman is facing charges after she allegedly stabbed a stranger with a hypodermic needle while they were waiting in line to order food at a restaurant.
Some residents of Saskatchewan's capital city have been vocal with their disapproval of Tourism Regina's latest rebrand, prompting an apology from the organization.
Police in Halifax say three people have been stabbed and a student is in custody following a weapons complaint at a high school in Bedford, N.S. The victims were taken to hospital for treatment, but the extent of their injuries is not yet known.
Frontline nurses who are working for publicly-funded employers in Nova Scotia will receive a bonus of up to $10,000, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announced Monday.
The University of Prince Edward Island Faculty Association says its staff has gone on strike after what it says are failed attempts to enter additional negotiations with the university's administration.
A London man has been arrested and charged with arson after a fire over the weekend. According to police, crews were called to a working fire at an apartment building in the 1600-block of Adelaide Street north around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Four police officers were assaulted over the weekend while attempting to make an arrest in St. Thomas. Just before 9 p.m. on Saturday, police responded to a home in the north end of the city.
Lane restrictions are now in place on Wellington Street as construction gets underway on Phase 1 of the Wellington Gateway and Municipal Infrastructure Improvements project.
A 46-year-old man has been taken to hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries after a single-vehicle crash on MR80 near Donaldson Crescent in Val Caron.
Nearly eight years after 20-year-old Beau Baker was shot and killed by a Waterloo regional police officer, an inquest into the Kitchener man’s death is now getting underway.
A community is in mourning after a 10-year-old girl was killed earlier this week when flames tore through her family’s camping trailer southeast of Brantford.
Ken Sim addresses supporters after being declared the next mayor of Vancouver, on Oct. 15, 2022.
