Kennedy Stewart’s Forward Together ticket releases platform as Vancouver mayor race tightens
Forward Together, the party led by Vancouver mayoral incumbent Kennedy Stewart, released its election platform on Tuesday.
The plan includes some new ideas and also recycles some unfulfilled promises made by Stewart four years ago.
The most ambitious part of the platform relates to housing and calls for 220,000 new units to be built over the next decade with 140,000 of those being rentals.
"We're going to change how we approve housing in this city to get it done faster. I understand people are finding it tough. I know what it's like to live with the stress of housing insecurity,” Stewart said.
“But no other platform is going to address this. No one else has the knowledge and know how to get the funding from provincial and federal governments."
Forward Together is also promising to do away with the city’s at-large system for electing city councillors and replace it with a ward system where residents only vote for the councillor representing their section of the city.
Stewart made a similar pledge four years ago when he ran as an independent but it went unfulfilled.
Asked about it Tuesday, Stewart said he brought it forward but didn’t have enough support on council to make it happen.
As part of his 2018 platform, Stewart also promised to “end big money influence on elections.”
There is no similar commitment in Forward Together’s platform this election.
Last month, a resident found a fundraising document linked to Forward Together on the sidewalk on West Broadway.
It lists several of the city's most prominent and wealthy developers as fundraising captains with specific dollar amounts listed next to their names.
Embattled Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini had a fundraising goal of $110,000 listed next to his name.
Asked about it on Tuesday, Stewart would only say Forward Together follows campaign finance regulations.
“Under Elections BC rules, corporations and unions cannot donate to parties, only individuals can,” Stewart said. "If you look at our disclosure on the website, you'll see the amounts that individuals are giving and that is what is required by Elections BC rules and that's what's being reported,” said Stewart.
The platform release comes just as new polling data shows the mayor’s race tightening.
According to numbers from Research Co., Stewart has the support of 36 per cent of decided voters, with Ken Sim of the ABC Party just behind at 34 per cent and Colleen Hardwick of TEAM For a Livable Vancouver polling in third with 14 per cent support.
Stewart beat Sim, then with the Non-Partisan Association, by less than a thousand votes to win the mayor’s seat in the 2018 election.
"The phone calls to those supporters are going to be coming in hard in the next couple of weeks because with an election this close, it's ultimately about who can get their vote out,” said Research Co.’s Mario Canseco.
Public safety, crime and street disorder have been the key campaign priorities for both Sim and Hardwick while Stewart has made affordable housing his central plank.
The Forward Together platform does include some promises related to policing, public safety and the opioid crisis.
Stewart says if re-elected, he will support fully funding Vancouver Police Board budget requests.
He has also promised to turn a section of East Hastings Street into what he calls a ‘wellness corridor’ with Indigenous-focused facilities and services and a new neighbourhood park.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.