Bob Mackin
Today is the day. Vancouverites will decide whether Ken Sim gets another four years in the mayor’s chair.
Or they could choose his former ABC campaign manager/chief of staff Kareem Allam, ex-ABC caucus mate Rebecca Bligh, left wing compromise candidate Pete Fry or reform-minded Colleen Hardwick to become the 42nd Mayor of Vancouver.
Sim’s ABC majority has been defined by the lack of barriers where they were needed and the abundance of barriers where they were not.
No rigid barriers at the Lapu Lapu Filipino festival’s food truck row
Eleven people killed on April 26, 2025. Dozens more injured. Despite internal warnings of a global uptick in vehicle ramming attacks at public events, East 43rd Avenue was protected only by wooden sawhorse barriers.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim signs the Book of Condolence for the Victims of the Lapu-Lapu incident at the Consulate of the Philippines on May 9, 2025, with Consul-Gen. Gina Jamoralin. (VancouverPCG.org)
A class action negligence lawsuit was filed against city hall, Vancouver Coastal Health and the driver of the vehicle, second degree murder suspect Adam Kai-ji Lo.
Barriers removed from the centre of the Granville Bridge
An ugly crash on Sept. 21. A southbound flatbed tow truck careened across the bridge, into northbound traffic, including a Coast Mountain bus. Six people hospitalized, one with life-altering injuries.
Before the $54 million Granville Connector project, traffic was separated by jersey barriers.
On May 12, a woman fell to her death from the Granville Bridge, where Sim’s ABC majority had opted not to install suicide barriers.
Bye-bye banana barriers
During the election campaign, a sudden flipflop from ABC to remove concrete banana barriers from residential streets after an East Vancouver citizens group signed up 3,000 petitioners.
Cost barriers against your right to know
Vancouver was once a pioneer in freedom of information legislation. Its 1982 bylaw came a whole decade before the NDP provincial government passed a B.C.-wide version. But, with election year and FIFA World Cup in sight, Sim and his ABC majority imposed a $10 application fee on FOI requests last fall.
Barrier to democracy
One year into the job, Sim decided he did not want another Park Board election. Three dissenting, ABC-elected Park Board commissioners were no longer welcome in Sim’s caucus.
His bid to replace the elected Park Board with appointees backfired.
Barrier to the watchdog
Lisa Southern was doing her job as integrity commissioner when she confirmed that Sim and his ABC caucus met secretly on the encrypted Signal app, rather than adhering to open meetings laws. Sim and ABC tried to Southern’s office in 2024, but backed-off due to public complaints.
Barrier to truth
Sim sold himself to voters in 2022 as a chartered professional accountant who wanted to get serious with the city’s finances. But ABC hiked taxes for three years before an election year tax freeze. Also new for the 2026 budget: ABC did not publish a line-by-line budget.
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