Chinese-Canadian mayors take the municipal reins in British Columbia
- New mayors Ken Sim of Vancouver and Simon Yu of Prince George both have roots in Hong Kong
- Both cities face an array of urban issues, including opioids, homelessness and crime, but voters sought newcomers to tackle them
Vancouver is British Columbia’s biggest city, Prince George is smaller but essential to the Canadian province’s economy. Both are combating drug addiction, homelessness and the crimes that stem from them.
To tackle those problems, residents of both have just voted in newcomers to municipal politics: Chinese-Canadians, with roots in Hong Kong, who are the first mayors of colour for each city.
Ken Sim, a 53-year-old entrepreneur, last month won 48 per cent of the vote in Vancouver (population: 660,000), handily beating the incumbent mayor Kennedy Stewart.
In Prince George (population: 85,000), Simon Yu, a 62-year-old structural engineer, won 40 per cent of the vote, easily besting his challenger, a former city councillor who only got 27 per cent.
Both men took care to note the significance of their elections.
At his inauguration on November 7, Sim noted that 135 years earlier, the first Chinese immigrants were required to pay a discriminatory tax to be allowed to work in Canada and build the western side of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway.
“The history of this moment is not lost on me. But the honour truly does go to those whose shoulders I stand on,” he said, naming Chinese-Canadian politicians and leaders in the past decades, including David Lam, the province’s first Chinese-Canadian lieutenant governor, and Douglas Jung, a war veteran, lawyer and politician.
