Vancouver Council & Park Board Voting Records

CORRECTION:

An error in our tabulation of the voting record data has resulted in inaccuracies for a few candidates. This has particularly affected Councillor Swanson, who was previously shown to have voted against 3 bike-friendly motions.

After correcting the data, voting records showed that Councillor Swanson voted in favour of all the motions related to bicycling, active transportation, and/or slow streets in the period from January 2019 to August 2022.

 

The Vancouver Local Committee scoured through Council and Parks Board votes to find out how incumbent councillors and commissioners voted on bike-related motions. With all incumbents except for Camil Dumont, Dave Demers and John Coupar from Park Board running again, it is important to know how they voted to make an informed decision at the polls, voting in bike-friendly councillors and parks board commissioners. In addition to voting records, we will also survey candidates across the region to determine their positions on active transportation and cycling, and have put together a Cycling Platform that candidates can endorse.

 

Vancouver City Council

 

Councillors

We identified 27 Council votes related to bicycling, active transportation, and/or slow streets in the period from January 2019 to August 2022. Two-thirds were passed unanimously, underscoring the importance of active transport to the citizens of Vancouver.

There were differences in voting patterns across council members and civic political parties.

  • Three council members consistently voted in favour of all motions to improve conditions for people biking: Christine Boyle, Jean Swanson, and Michael Wiebe.
  • One member voted in favour of all but one: Kennedy Stewart.
  • Five members voted against 2 or 3 motions: Adriane Carr (2), Lisa Dominato (2), Sarah Kirby-Yung (2), Pete Fry (3), and Rebecca Bligh (3).
  • Two members voted against 5 or 7 motions: Melissa de Genova (5), Colleen Hardwick (7).

 

See detailed chart of bike-related votes in council Jan 2019- Aug 2022

 

 

Political Parties

 

  • Most parties have only one incumbent candidate, so the voting record of the individual candidate is the record for the party.
  • The Green Party and ABC each have three incumbents running, and their candidates voted differently from each other, so once again, it is best to check the candidate record.
  • It’s also useful to see from which party the incumbents have moved (refer to Council Voting Record” chart) in order to get a sense of ongoing political affiliations.

 

Parks Board

We identified 12 Parks Board votes related to bicycling, green transport, micromobility, and slow speeds in the period from January 2019 to August 2022. Three were passed unanimously, but for the rest, there were differences in voting patterns across commisioners and these followed party lines.

 

Commissioners

 

  • One commissioner voted against bike friendliness in 8 motions: John Coupar.
  • One commissioner voted against bike friendliness in 9 motions: Tricia Barker.

 

Political Parties

 

  • Commissioners representing or running for COPE, the Green Party, and Vision Vancouver consistently voted in favour of bike friendly motions.
  • Commissioners representing the NPA and TEAM voted against almost all bike friendly motions.

 

See detailed chart of bike-related Parks Board votes Jan 2019- Aug 2022