Gregor Robertson Elected Vancouver’s New Mayor

Vision Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson was elected Mayor of Vancouver on Saturday, handily beating Peter Ladner of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA).
Gregor Robertson Elected Vancouver’s New Mayor
VICTORY: Newly elected Mayor of Vancouver Gregor Robertson beams after defeating the NPA’s Peter Ladner on Saturday, November 15. (Fany Qiu/Epoch Times)
11/15/2008
Updated:
11/18/2008
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/Robertson_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/Robertson_medium.jpg" alt="VICTORY: Newly elected Mayor of Vancouver Gregor Robertson beams after defeating the NPA's Peter Ladner on Saturday, November 15. (Fany Qiu/Epoch Times)" title="VICTORY: Newly elected Mayor of Vancouver Gregor Robertson beams after defeating the NPA's Peter Ladner on Saturday, November 15. (Fany Qiu/Epoch Times)" width="300" class="size-medium wp-image-64213"/></a>
VICTORY: Newly elected Mayor of Vancouver Gregor Robertson beams after defeating the NPA's Peter Ladner on Saturday, November 15. (Fany Qiu/Epoch Times)

VANCOUVER—After an intense race, Vision Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson was elected Mayor of Vancouver on Saturday, handily beating Peter Ladner of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) by 18,804 votes.

The centre-left Vision Vancouver party showed a significant lead early in the election, wresting the office away from the NPA which has dominated municipal politics in the city for the past three years.

In his victory speech at the Fairmont’s Hotel Vancouver soon after the polls closed, Robertson said his  win over Ladner was even more exciting than watching the Vancouver Canucks hockey team defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs.

He said he will seek out “the best brains” to bring an end to Vancouver’s homelessness problem, a cornerstone of his campaign.

“We’re asking the people of Vancouver to stay involved,” he said. ”We will create opportunities for people in every community of Vancouver to have a say in the decisions that we make.”

He thanked Ladner, outgoing mayor Sam Sullivan and the NPA for their service, and said he will work with other governments to tackle the “overwhelming” challenges the city faces.

Robertson’s bid for mayor was backed by the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) and the Green Party. The alliance won majorities on council, the board of education and park board.

Seven out of 10 councilors will be from Vision Vancouver, two from COPE, and just one from NPA. In contrast, the outgoing council was composed of one NPA mayor, five NPA councilors, four Vision members and one COPE.

Of the seven elected park commissioners, four are from Vision and one each from NPA, Green and COPE. The new board of school trustees shows more balance, with four Vision members, three COPE, and two NPA. Vision’s Raymond Louie led all council candidates with 66,226 votes.

In conceding defeat, Ladner said, “We have nothing to be ashamed of. We delivered some very good results to the City of Vancouver.”

The campaign season was marked by scandal, first by Robertson’s $173 fine for an underpaid SkyTrain fare, then by the leaking of confidential documents that revealed details of $100-million city bailout for Olympic Village developer Millennium and/or its financial backer, Fortress Investment Corp.

Sullivan has asked the Vancouver police to investigate the leak which he has described as a document “theft.”

In order to encourage turnout, the city had mailed official voters’ guides to 260,000 homes. However, turnout was low, with only 30.7 per cent of voters casting their ballot. 

The official election results will be issued on November 19. Robertson will take office on December 8.