Interviews with British Columbia mayors

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Novemeber 8, 2011

The only sitting member of Vancouver City council representing the opposition Non-Partisan Association (NPA), Suzanne Anton has been a persistent critic of Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision Vancouver party over the last three years. She’s now running to unseat him and become the city’s first female mayor.

If you win, you’d be the first female mayor in Vancouver history. I was wondering if that had any particular significance for you.

Absolutely. Every mayor of Vancouver has been a white male despite the fact that we’re supposed to be a city of diversity. So yes, it has a lot of significance for me.

I do think, however, that most voters just look at the issues. Do they like what I’m saying, or do they like what Gregor [Robertson] is saying? I think voters look at that more than the diversity question.

Do you think women politicians are different than male ones?

When you get into the give-and-take of council, you, again, focus more on the issues than whether you’re a man or a woman. But every politician who brings a different kind of diversity to the table contributes a different perspective.

Everyone is always looking for candidates from the different communities of the city — Chinese candidates for example — because it’s very important that to have all those voices represented. Women bring women’s voices.

I bring a mother’s voice. I’ve got three kids, I know what it’s like to have to go to work and take the kids to soccer practice and try to get out to a meeting and still put food on the table. These are all things which still fall mostly on women, and they’re all fresh in my mind, even though my kids are in their 20s now. So being a mother, this is the perspective I bring to the table.

The press often refers to your party, the NPA, as a “right of centre” party. What does right-of-center mean?

I don’t know.

Do you self-identify as right-of-center?

No. Others label you.

Now, there’s no question we are the more business-friendly party. We are a fiscally responsible party. Our mantra is “taxpayers first.” We focus on economic issues and spending taxpayers’ money wisely.

What does the Vision party focus on?

They have been entirely focused on their green agenda to the detriment of everything else in the city. They have squandered three years on this agenda.

The city of Vancouver was already green. Gregor came to the greenest city in Canada. If he wanted to go somewhere where a green agenda would be hard, why didn’t he go somewhere where they weren’t already on that track? He jumped into the easiest city in Canada to promote a green agenda.

Do you know why we’re green? Good land use policies. Everybody who lives downtown is green as can be because they don’t own a car — or they use it rarely — they don’t need to buy a lot of possessions, because they’re in condos, and they live their lives close to work. That’s greener than all this greenwashing chicken-coop-wheat-fields-water-meter stuff. It’s all a big, fat, waste of money. None of those things are green. Green is good land use, and the NPA has always been the party of good land use. We built Yaletown, we built Coal Harbour, we built False Creek. Those big neighborhoods are all NPA projects. That’s green.

On the green economy, which is the second thing Gregor has done, he has squandered three years of economic development time thinking about what a “green job” is. And what was his conclusion after three years? Green jobs represent three percent of the economy! To me, that’s ridiculous.

Obviously green jobs are important, but as mayor of Vancouver, I am mayor of all of the economy. I am the mayor of the big resource industries centered in Vancouver: mining, forestry, shipping, ports. I am mayor of the big knowledge-based industries: medicine, high-tech, education. I am the mayor of the creative industries: film, digital, and the arts. I am the mayor of tourism. I am the mayor of all of those industries.

Here’s a good example, you know that ship-building contract in North Vancouver, the eight billion contract? The other day they thanked all their friends in a big ad in the paper. You know who wasn’t on that list? The City of Vancouver. Now why wouldn’t the mayor of Vancouver be the most interested person in an eight billion dollar contact? I will be.

Gregor’s other obsession was homelessness, and again, he picked no easier city than Vancouver. The NPA council had five major projects on homelessness, all of which are bearing fruit now. It’s the NPA team that put together the partnerships that got forty buildings underway, that got 24-hour shelter funding, that got street-to-home foundations started. So Gregor really jumped in and coasted along on NPA projects.

I’m very proud of our NPA team in the previous council and the one we’re running with now, because we’re the team that knows how to get things done.

What’s the single most important thing the municipal government can do to create jobs?

You have to look out for the opportunities which can come to your city. And in the case of Vancouver, those opportunities might not all be in Vancouver, which was my earlier point. A mine in northern BC is important to Vancouver because Vancouver is the economic center of the province. I think the mayor of Vancouver is in a unique position because we are in the center of all of these industries.

So, to return to the ship-building example, I would have been lobbying for that. It’s the job of the mayor of Vancouver to promote the city and promote the region.

The city does not create jobs directly — though these guys tried. They gave people money and said “here, have some money, go do something green and we’ll call it a ‘green job.’” That’s not a green job. When taxpayers are paying for it, it’s not a green job.

I’m from the free enterprise party; free enterprise can do this work. The job of the mayor is to promote the city, create favorable business conditions, and be helpful to organizations when they need help provincially or federally to get jobs to come to Vancouver.

And by the way, Gregor’s own company — Happy Planet — left Vancouver.

Is the city government too big?

I think it’s very temping as a government to keep taking on new things and keep expanding the role of your government. I want to look at everything we’re doing and make sure it’s the right thing to be doing.

Now that’s not to say there’s a million things we want to cut. There aren’t. But I do want to focus on the basic services that citizens need. You would not believe how often I’ve heard about sidewalks in this campaign. Seniors in particular need safe sidewalks. It’s that kind of fundamental service that is job one for cities. It may sound dull, but that’s what cities do. Cities do sidewalks and roads and street lighting and sewers and all that dull-sounding infrastructure stuff. That’s what will be job number one for me.

The city of Vancouver does move into other areas. We do a lot of work on housing, and we have quite a big social and cultural agenda, too. Those are all important, but you have to be careful not to just keep moving outward. You have to stick to the city’s role.
Gregor has tried to bring a lot of provincial responsibilities to the city of Vancouver. That’s very costly to taxpayers. He has persuaded taxpayers that housing is Vancouver’s problem to solve. No it’s not. It’s a provincial problem to solve. Same with the green agenda. Practically everything he’s interested in is provincial. And every time you expand your role into provincial matters, it ends up being tough on taxpayers.

Are city workers paid too much?

That’s a pretty loaded question! (laughs) There’s a negotiation coming up. I know that there’s a discussion about the public sector being paid more than the private sector.

I don’t want to say “yes” or “no” to this question because there’s a negotiation is coming up and obviously there’ll be a review of it then. I almost feel that by commenting I’m getting into the middle of a negotiation.

You don’t have an instinctive perspective as a taxpayer?

No. I will say this: I have upmost respect for our city staff. They do a really good job.

There’s always a lot of talk about social housing in Vancouver municipal politics, and creating more affordable living spaces for low-income peoples. But do you think Vancouver is a city that is affordable for young, middle class people?

Well, if you mean living right in the best part of downtown, then yeah, that’s always going to be really expensive. If you mean living out further out in the city, it becomes more affordable the further out you go. It’s just supply and demand.

You’re about my son’s age. He has a lot of friends living downtown and they can afford it because they don’t have cars and they have roommates. So people can find ways to make it work when they’re determined to make it work.

When there are still people sleeping in doorways, I’m not very inclined to do things that subsidize rent.

Is there enough racial integration in Vancouver?

Vancouver’s greatest strength is our multicultural society. Are there cultural divisions in Vancouver? Occasionally, but we celebrate our diversity and there are many organizations in this city that promote diversity and promote integration. I love the city of Vancouver for that. It gives us cultural richness and ties to the rest of the world bring us economic prosperity.

You don’t have any concern that people are getting too isolated at the expense of unity?

You’re always concerned if people are isolated. I know seniors in particular who come here as immigrants sometimes get isolated. This is why I am very supportive of immigrant-serving organizations.

Does the city need campaign finance reform?

I don’t feel terribly strongly about it one way or another. It’s a provincial issue. If changes are to come, they’ll come through the Union of BC Municipalities and the province. If the province wanted to regulate it, and put everyone on an even playing field, I’d support it.

In terms of campaign money and Gregor, there’s no question that there are some very interesting connections between Gregor, his funders, and these big American charities which are taking very strong positions on environmental issues.

Do real estate developers have too much power over municipal government?

We take donations from developers, but that doesn’t mean your premise is true. If I take a donation from developer X, and then six months later that developer brings a development for rezoning, am I influenced by the donation? No. Every municipal politician will tell you that. You have to separate, in your mind, the donor and the project that comes further down the road. In fact, I’ve voted against some donors who have not been too happy about that afterwards.

What was the lesson of the Canucks riot?

Leadership, leadership, leadership.

Nobody was in charge. And nobody took responsibility. As mayor, I will be in charge and I will be accountable.

How likely do you think it is that the Occupy Vancouver will turn violent?

Unlikely. It seems that after dithering for three weeks, Gregor is now acting. It took the death of a young woman to make that happen. And that’s most unfortunate. The tents should have come down weeks ago.

Will people resist? Probably. Will it be violent? I hope not. It’s a peaceful protest. Certainly the police will be there to keep the peace.

When you were younger, would something like Occupy Vancouver be the sort of cause you’d participate in?

I’m very interested in what they have to say. Would I have ever camped down there? No. Would I have gone down to listen? Absolutely. I go down now and pay attention. I’ve been to the site many times. Gregor has never been on the site, by the way. Even though he says he has, he has not. You can ask him.

You don’t find the protestors naïve at all?

I would hope that young people are idealistic. I think I would have failed as a parent if I didn’t have idealistic kids.

Between the riot and the Occupy stuff, do you worry Vancouver is getting an image problem?

There’s no question the riot brought international shock and horror. I was so horrified when I went down there that night and saw the looted stores. If I hadn’t gone down to see it I would have never believed it. I just could not believe that people would do that in Vancouver. It was a terrible shock. So that brought Vancouver a black eye.

The Occupy movement, because its one of many, perhaps not so much. But what Occupy does do is illustrate a failure of leadership, just like the riots. No leadership during the riot, no leadership now during Occupy Vancouver.

Can you not sympathize with the idea that Mayor Robertson might be sensitive about being associated with images of the Vancouver police rounding up screaming protestors?

When you’re mayor of the city you need to be the leader of the city. And sometimes being leader of the city means making decisions which appear to be tough at the time. It would have been far easier to move these tents on day one, or day two, or day three. Now we’re at day 25 or so, and it’s only going to get harder and harder.

Why do you think voter turnout is so low in municipal elections?

That’s a frustrating issue. It’s not unique to Vancouver. I know that the city election office tries to promote voter engagement. I don’t know. All I know is that when I’m out campaigning I make sure I say to every single person — even the ones who don’t like me — “make sure you go out and vote.” I think it’s the obligation of all of us to ask people to go out and vote.

It is frustrating. Like these Occupy kids. The best way to change the system is to get involved in the system. And voting is a good start.

This might be kind of a silly question, but when I ask people about municipal politics they often say they simply don’t care, because it’s too boring. This has obviously been a pretty spirited election, but can you sympathize with that sentiment at all? Do you ever have moments, at a meeting or wherever, and you’re just like “my god, this is dull.”

I love the public process. I like to listen to people. Every time someone stands up to speak, even if it seems like its the same person saying the exact same thing, there’s always a piece of it that’s interesting.

What sort of person does it take?

You have to like people. You have to like issues. And you have to like problem solving.

I came into politics through my kids playing soccer and trying to get better playing facilities, getting better playing fields. That’s why I ran for the park board. I’m still fixed on that agenda now; having top sport facilities in Vancouver. Having a cultural hub that makes our city stand out in terms of our facilities. That’s why I am a strong prompter of the new art gallery, strong promoter of the Vancouver museum. I want Vancouver to shine in the cultural world.

I like to think big about what we can do in Vancouver. The other guys are the team of no — no to the Canada Line, no to the Olympics, no to the stadium, no to the convention centre. We’re the team of yes.

How do you be the party of yes to everything and then also be fiscally responsible?

Because these things can be funded. We’re at a really interesting time in our history where we have a lot of development, there are a lot of fees from development that come to the city and I am proposing to take a piece of those fees — say if you have $100, you’d take 10 — and put it into cultural facilities and cultural programming. That will give a steady stream of capital and operating revenue to cultural institutions. That’s what will allow the smaller institutions to build up. There are creative ways to finance these things that do not involve direct property tax dollars. I can see how to do these things so clearly, and I am going to do them when I am mayor.