Progress Vancouver was a municipal political party in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia, created in June 2018 to support the candidacy of

Hector Bremner Hector Bremner is a Canadian politician, who served as a member of the Vancouver City Council in Vancouver, British Columbia from 2017 to 2018. Early life Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Bremner spent his early childhood years in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

for mayor. Known as Yes Vancouver until October 2021, the party was the first municipal political party in British Columbia that stated their explicit dedication to

YIMBY The YIMBY movement (short for "yes, in my back yard") is a pro-housing movement in contrast and opposition to the NIMBY ("''not'' in my back yard") phenomenon. The YIMBY position supports increasing the supply of housing within cities where hous ...

principles. The party was deregistered by Elections BC in July 2023.

History

2018 election

was first elected as an

Non-Partisan Association The Non-Partisan Association (NPA) is a municipal political party in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was established by the city's business leaders in 1937 to challenge the democratic socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) ...

(NPA) councillor in the 2017 Vancouver by-election, but his bid to run for the party's mayoral nomination in the city's 2018 election was blocked by the party executive. The president of the NPA did not reveal the reasons for rejecting Bremner's bid for nomination. This resulted in a divide between Bremner and his supporters and the NPA leadership, prompting Bremner to split from the NPA and create Yes Vancouver on June 28, 2018. In October 2021, Yes Vancouver rebranded as Progress Vancouver.

2022 election

Following the rebrand to Progress Vancouver, and changes to the makeup of the party board, Progress emerged as an urbanist, centrist party with candidates coming from centre-left and centre-right backgrounds. In addition to mayoral candidate

Mark Marissen Mark Allan Marissen (born 1966 in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian political strategist and principal of Burrard Strategy Inc., a communications company he founded in 1998. Marissen is also a senior advisor to McMillan Vantage Policy G ...

, Progress Vancouver nominated the following city council candidates: Asha Hayer, David Chin, Marie-Noelle Rosa, Mauro Francis, May He, and Morgane Oger. The party also nominated a candidate for director of Electoral Area A, Jonah Gonzalez.

Deregistration

On July 4, 2023,

Elections BC Elections BC (formally the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of British Columbia) is a non-partisan office of the British Columbia legislature responsible for conducting provincial and local elections, by-elections, petitions, referendums, pl ...

deregistered Progress Vancouver for failing to meet campaign financing disclosure requirements following the 2022 election. Elections BC stated that the party's violations included accepting a non-permissible loan of $50,000, accepting prohibited campaign contributions from outside British Columbia, and accepting contributions more than the annual campaign contribution limit. All candidates who ran for Progress Vancouver in 2022 are disqualified from running again in a local election until after the 2026 general local elections. Elections BC also stated that their investigation into the party's finance was ongoing and further enforcement actions may be taken.

Platform

The 2018 platform of Yes Vancouver mainly focused on the city's housing shortage. The party promised to increase the supply of rental housing in Vancouver to reduce the cost of rent by establishing citywide pre-zoning, using incentives on city-owned land to add affordable housing, and capping permit times. The party also supported the specific targeting of speculation over the current homeowners of Vancouver. Progress Vancouver's 2022 platform is similarly focused on housing affordability, but also seeks to address public safety, the drug poisoning crisis, and homelessness. Housing commitments include: allowing multi-family residential units city-wide, establishing a Vancouver Civic Housing Corporation, increase housing targets to 15,000 units annually, and enact a luxury property surtax on the top 1% of properties in Vancouver. Public safety commitments include: redefining the Four-Pillar drug strategy, asking the provincial government to pilot safe supply, using vacant land to operate temporary emergency outdoor shelters, and increasing penalties for random, unprovoked stranger assaults.

Electoral performance

Party leader

ran as Yes Vancouver's mayoral candidate for the Vancouver municipal election, held on October 20, 2018. Five candidates from Yes Vancouver ran for

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

: entrepreneurs Brinder Bains, Glynnis Chan, Stephanie Ostler, Phyllis Chan and Jaspreet Virdi, none of whom were elected to city council. Educator and former NPA school board candidate Julian Prieto unsuccessfully ran for the

Vancouver School Board The Vancouver School Board (VSB; officially School District 39 Vancouver) is a school district based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A board of nine trustees normally manages this district that serves the city of Vancouver and the Uni ...

for the second time, last running with the NPA during the 2017 by-election, and coach Leo Heba also unsuccessfully ran for the

Vancouver Park Board The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, commonly referred to as the Vancouver Park Board, is the elected board with exclusive possession, jurisdiction and control over public parks in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Established by sectio ...

References

{{Vancouver political parties Municipal political parties in Vancouver Political parties established in 2018 2018 establishments in British Columbia