Dan Fumano: Federal Liberal government 'great news for Vancouver,' mayor says
Credit to Author: Dan Fumano| Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2019 01:12:33 +0000
Canada’s Liberal minority government will be “great news for Vancouver,” Mayor Kennedy Stewart said Tuesday, days after he publicly denounced the Conservatives.
Stewart drew sharp criticism last week for declaring that a Conservative government would be “a disaster for the city,” but Tuesday, the mayor said he had no regrets about the statement and “would do it again in a minute.”
In the mayor’s view, Monday’s federal election results augur well for his top three priorities: rapid transit infrastructure, affordable housing development and overdose crisis response.
Stewart wants more federal funding for more social housing units in Vancouver and money to extend the planned Broadway subway extension all the way to the University of B.C. He has also been pushing, with Vancouver’s police department and B.C. public health officials, for the federal government to allow “a safe supply,” meaning a regulated supply of drugs, such as opioids, as a way to reduce the number of people dying from illicit drugs cut with such deadly opioids as fentanyl.
Those areas were the focus of Stewart’s controversial pre-election statement last week. The statement, on official City of Vancouver letterhead, declared that Andrew Scheer as prime minister would be “worse than Stephen Harper.”
Stewart’s statement argued a Conservative government would halt progress on the overdose crisis, make housing less affordable, and its proposed infrastructure cuts “would kill SkyTrain to UBC.” (Stewart’s initial statement misspelled Scheer’s surname as “Sheer,” seven times — an updated version with the correct spelling was sent out 22 minutes later).
As a former two-term NDP member of Parliament, Stewart’s politics were no surprise. And as a political-science professor at Simon Fraser University before that, he was a frequent commentator on several elections.
Still, his pre-election statement was a rarity.
It’s often expected that municipal politicians will remain, publicly, somewhat agnostic before federal elections because they will need to work with whoever wins. For breaking with that convention, Stewart drew sharp criticism.
NPA Coun. Colleen Hardwick said Tuesday that she took issue with “the appropriateness of the mayor of a city speaking up, and taking a position on another level of government’s election.”
Asked Tuesday if he had any regrets about his public statement last week, Stewart said: “I don’t regret it all.”
“In fact, I’m glad I made it because I believe in it,” Stewart said. “I received some criticism, but that kind of comes with the job. And yeah, I would do it again in a minute.”
Soon after Stewart’s statement, Toronto Mayor John Tory was asked by reporters if he shared the Vancouver mayor’s concerns about the prospect of a Conservative government. Tory said he was concerned about what he called “shortcomings” in the Conservative platform, the Toronto Star reported, but he stressed he would “critique election policies but will not tell Torontonians who to vote for — or vote against — in the federal election.”
With the federal Liberals clinging to power, Stewart doesn’t have to worry for now about how his statement might have strained his relationship with the Scheer Conservatives.
And while Stewart is clearly glad that he won’t be soon dealing with a prime minister Scheer, he also might be happy to see that the NDP, the party he represented in Ottawa until last year, will likely play an important role in this new parliament. Because the Liberals didn’t win a majority, they will likely need the support of the NDP to remain in power for long.
Stewart said he’s well-positioned to get Ottawa’s attention, as he’s “good friends” with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who was elected Monday night to represent Burnaby South, the seat Stewart vacated last year to run for mayor.
Some longtime NDP MPs, like Jenny Kwan and Don Davies, were also re-elected Monday to represent Vancouver ridings, and may play important roles in the NDP caucus. And some prominent Liberal MPs for Vancouver were re-elected, too, including cabinet ministers Harjit Sajjan and Joyce Murray.
All that bodes well for Vancouver, Stewart said. “I think that means we’ll get listened to.”
OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle said she hopes the election results will be good for Vancouver.
“The federal Liberals have made many promises on infrastructure and housing and opioids that are priorities for us,” Boyle said. “We’re still hoping for a much more significant contribution on the housing crisis in Vancouver, so hopefully this minority situation pushes the federal government to deliver more seriously. … I think a lot of good is possible out of a minority government, and I do hope the NDP and the Greens, federally, pressure the Liberals to deliver more quickly on all of these priorities.”