Vision Vancouver is a

green liberal Green liberalism, or liberal environmentalism, is liberalism that includes green politics in its ideology. Green liberals are usually Social liberalism, liberal on social issues and "green" on economic issues. The term "green liberalism" was coin ...

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, Canada. Vision was formed in the months leading up to the 2005 municipal election.

Formation

Vision was founded by former

Coalition of Progressive Electors The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) is a municipal political party in the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia. It has traditionally been associated with tenants, environmentalists, and the labour movement. COPE is generally gu ...

(COPE) members first elected to Vancouver City Council in 2002. Following that election,

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Larry Campbell Larry W. Campbell (born 28 February 1948) is a Canadian politician that served as the 37th mayor of Vancouver, Canada from 2002 until 2005 and since 2005 has been a member of the Senate of Canada. Before he was mayor, Campbell worked for th ...

and Councillors Jim Green,

Raymond Louie Raymond Louie (; born January 16, 1965) is a Canadian politician. He is a five-term Vancouver City Councillor. Formerly a member of Coalition of Progressive Electors civic party, Louie broke away and was re-elected in 2005, and again in 2008, ...

and

Tim Stevenson Tim Stevenson (born 1945) is a Canadian politician and United Church minister. He served as councillor on the Vancouver City Council, 2002 to 2018 as a member of Vision Vancouver. He was a founding member of Vision Vancouver. Background Ste ...

were dubbed "COPE Light" by the local media due to their moderate positions on taxation and development, as opposed to the more leftist "COPE Classic" councillors. Ongoing disagreements between the two factions led to Campbell and his allies forming an independent COPE caucus in December 2004. At the same time, supporters of Campbell and his allies created a fundraising organization independent of COPE called "Friends of Larry Campbell". This group and its backers eventually formed a new party called "Vision Vancouver", initially to be led by Campbell. However, when Campbell announced that he would not seek a second term as mayor, he called on Jim Green to run to succeed him. The party decided in August 2005 to run only five of a possible ten council candidates and did not contest school board and park board slate elections. In the November 2005 election for Vancouver City Council, four Vision Vancouver candidates (

, Tim Stevenson,

Heather Deal Heather Deal is a Canadian biologist and politician. She served as a Vancouver city councillor until 2018, first elected as a member of Vision Vancouver in 2005. She previously served as a Vancouver Park Board commissioner for the 2002 to 200 ...

and

George Chow George Chow ( zh, t=周烱華) is a Canadian politician. He was elected as a New Democratic Party Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in the 2017 provincial election, representing the riding of Vancouver-Fraserview, and ...

) were elected, but the party's mayoral candidate, Jim Green, was defeated by the

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) ...

's (NPA)

Sam Sullivan Sam Sullivan (born November 13, 1959) is a Canadian politician who had served as the MLA for Vancouver-False Creek. Previously, he served as the Minister of Communities, Sport and Cultural Development with responsibility for Translink in the ...

. Six members of the Non-Partisan Association were elected along with one for COPE.

In power (2008–2018)

For the November 2008 election, Vision was seen as a serious contender for control of the city due to the perceived unpopularity of the

's NPA team. In June 2008, Vision held an election to nominate their mayoral candidate. The choices were Gregor Robertson (a local "green" businessman, owner of the

Happy Planet Happy Planet is a private company in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, known for making organic juices and smoothies. The company was started in 1994 by Randal Ius and Gregor Robertson. They originally started out with one farm producing car ...

juice company and a provincial New Democratic Party

member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

for

Vancouver-Fairview Vancouver-Fairview is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. Fairview is made up of two rectangles: one bounded by Granville Street to the east, 16th Avenue to the south, Arbutus Street to th ...

), Raymond Louie (serving as a Vision city councillor), and Allan De Genova (an independent

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 ...

commissioner who defected from the NPA because of his dislike of Sullivan's leadership). The original dynamic for this contest shifted when the NPA voted to change their mayoral candidate, replacing the incumbent Sullivan with longtime councillor and businessman Peter Ladner, the editor of the ''

Business in Vancouver ''Business in Vancouver'' (''BIV'') is a weekly business news journal co-founded in 1989 by Peter Ladner in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Published on Tuesdays it receives about 62,000 readers per week. Its operations include the biv.com ...

'' newspaper. Gregor Robertson was nominated to be Vision's mayoral candidate in 2008 despite his perceived similarity to NPA rival Sam Sullivan. Under the direction of mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson, Vision Vancouver responded to COPE's requests (dating back to a change in leadership at COPE in May 2007) to negotiate an electoral coalition with COPE and the

Green Party of Vancouver The Green Party of Vancouver, founded in 1984, is a municipal political party in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is affiliated with both the provincial Green Party of British Columbia and the federal Green Party of Canada. They are cont ...

(who ran joint slates with COPE in previous years). Vision Vancouver, COPE and the Greens agreed to support Gregor Robertson as mayor, avoid running competing slates and coordinate other elements of the election. On November 15, 2008, Gregor Robertson was elected mayor of Vancouver and the Vision–COPE–Green coalition came to power. The only Vision Vancouver candidate who was not elected was Kashmir Dhalliwal. In the 2011 Vancouver municipal election, held on November 19, Gregor Robertson was re-elected mayor of Vancouver. All Vision Vancouver candidates were elected. In the 2014 election, held on November 15, Gregor Robertson was re-elected mayor of Vancouver. The slate also retained its majority on city council, the school board, and the park board. In 2017, Vision lost one seat on council in a by-election to

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 ...

of the NPA. Vision ran a slate of candidates in the 2018 electionincluding Heather Deal, Catherine Evans, Diego Cardona, Tanya Paz and Wei Qiao Zhangfor city council. Ian Campbell was intended to be the slate's mayoral candidate, but several days before nominations were due, he withdrew from the race. The election resulted in Vision losing their majority on all three elected bodies and losing all but one race, for a seat on the Vancouver School Board which was held by incumbent Allan Wong.

Electoral results

Notes

References

External links