Over nearly 15 years, too many had come to feel Vancouver’s plot was lost, slowly and steadily, and more and more people at both ends of the advantage spectrum housed grievance. A pricey place became utterly unaffordable, an orderly place became unusually unruly, the social fabric stretched too far, the political covenant produced divisiveness.
In conversation a few months after he lost by 957 votes four years ago, it was clear that he would try again. Brought into the race late, he saw opportunity if only he could apply his systems knowledge and facility with process properly and with time. For the time being, policies and a purpose of his candidacy would wait as Sim worked with a small team to shape ABC , an organization that would fit his image and fill the opening. His network and its money went with him, or perhaps he went with his network and its money, but in either case Sim worked diligently and largely out of the limelight.
As these opportunities emerged, Sim drew upon those tenets to enlarge a phone list and ceaselessly tap it, went to endless small meetings, and even in the least visible of political times in the early stages of the pandemic just stuck at it. For a long time, it appeared that the four challengers to the mayor – Sim, Hardwick, Progress Vancouver’s Mark Marissen and a late-arriving NPA Fred Harding – would slice and dice the anti-Stewart vote.