Culture

Will East Van decide Vancouver's next mayor?

by mtippett | June 17, 2008 at 08:18 am

345 views | 2 Recommendations | 6 comments

An interesting piece in 24hrs today about the potential for East Vancouver to sway the election results in the upcoming city race.

"I think the whole election was decided [Sunday]," said SFU political scientist Kennedy Stewart.

A united left, Stewart reckons, could eclipse Ladner's centre-right Non-Partisan Association, which is thought to have a strong west side presence.

"Shaughnessy and Kerrisdale, they support the NPA, but they have 80-90 per cent turnout every election," Stewart said. "They can't grow anymore. But in the east side [where the civic left is expected to draw support], turnouts are often 20 per cent. They have lots of room to grow."

I would add to that the possibility that support on the West Side will start shifting to the Gregor camp. There are a lot of disgruntled West Siders looking for change.

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crayon

at 14:20 on July 21st, 2008

True, many people living in East Van, particularly older immigrant families, are more conservative-minded and have been known to vote in support of the NPA's business-minded approach. And it's a similar case on the West Side--the Shaunessy/Kerrisdale NPA-slingers comprise Ladner's Graceland. There's a big contingent of older West Side families who have strong connections to Peter Ladner as a St. George's/Shawnigan Lake school alumnus (affectionately dubbed "the York House Girls"). Then again, there's the green West Side contingent backing Robertson. The East side vote will be interesting this year because East Van has been gentrifying so much in the past three years, bringing more Kitsilano-ish, educated-lefty populations to Main Street and Commercial Drive.

Rob Peters

at 10:56 on June 17th, 2008

Interesting...I think young people in Vancouver seem to be more interested in politics lately as well, perhaps because the Olympics has made a lot of city issues unavoidable.

eastvanray

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:48 on June 17th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.

As a resident of East Van Halen I think it would be a very interesting campaign if it was down to the voters here. I say interesting because East Van has changed and the left can no longer take this part of town for granted. Many of the people that live in East Van today are conservative-minded and may well be split between Robertson and Ladner. I am looking forward to hearing the candidates platforms. And I mean more than "we need to solve homelesness" or "we need more liveable neighbourhoods".

billy McCabe (not verified)

at 10:14 on August 11th, 2008

Personally I believe Marc Emery www.cannabisculture.com will have a huge impact with wanting to get compassion clubs licensed by the city!

eastvanray

at 12:05 on August 11th, 2008

I doubt it. Marc Emery's supporters will get high and forget to get out and vote.

Saints Boy (not verified)

at 07:44 on November 9th, 2008

"the York House Girls"

Hilarious. Ladner was never a terribly good Saints boy; but then Saints wasn't a terribly good school when he was there.

And just so you know, Saints is not very Establishment; true old money is Shawnigan and maybe Brentwood, all island schools (very British, empire-builder sort of things).

And no one ever says "alumnus". That's for Americans. It's just good, simple "old boy" up here.