THE ORR REPORT: Having fun and fighting Ken Sim’s cuts

It’s less than one year until the next election, and we’ve got Ken Sim and ABC on the ropes. 

They’re flailing - and we must not underestimate how much damage they can do to Vancouver on their way out of power. 

On Friday night we held a party at Palm Street Studios in East Van to celebrate that it’s now just less than one year until the next municipal election on October 17, 2026. 

The vibes were great at the party - thanks to all the volunteer organizers who tended the bar, set up and cleaned up. And big thanks to the DJs who kept the party going late. 

I gave a brief speech on Friday, and we had some good laughs about a new poll that came out that for some reason tested out the scenario of Sean Orr for Mayor. Turns out the poll had COPE way ahead of Ken Sim and ABC. 

But, if I was the Mayor… the first thing I would do is cut the bloated budget of the mayor’s office. 

If I was the Mayor, I would make sure City Hall was being used to serve the people - instead of using it for my personal gym or my Bitcoin calls. 

I would fully fund our public services, and reverse all of ABC’s cuts. I would launch a task force on ending demovictions and protecting tenants in my first week. And I would push to develop a Housing Authority that builds publicly-owned housing for all income levels.

The important thing is not the latest polls numbers or even who runs for Mayor; the important thing is the movement we’re building together to Evict ABC and win a Vancouver for all. If all the opposition parties on Council unite by running a reasonable number of candidates and a single mayoral candidate who is committed to fighting for what we need, we will win. 

Last week we had a great example of the opposition on Council uniting. Ken Sim and ABC needed a two-thirds majority to pass their motion to transfer city-owned lands to a new city-run development company that would build market rental housing on these sites. 

The City using lands it owns to take the job of building housing into its own hands is not a bad idea in principle. It’s just that this needs to be done the right way, and Councillors Fry, Maloney, and Bligh and myself tried with a series of amendments to make this work. Ken Sim and ABC were intransigent, voting down common sense improvements to the motion that would have better ensured affordability. 

As I said on the day of the debate, using city-owned land to extract maximum rents from tenants is fraught with problems. We need a Housing Authority in Vancouver that can make the best use of our city-owned land to prioritize public and co-op housing that is permanently affordable. 

In the wake of this vote, ABC cried foul and tried to paint the opposition as ‘anti-housing’ when they are the ones who voted against ensuring affordability; they are the ones who recently voted against strengthening the empty homes tax, and a couple years ago even gave back $3.8 million to developers; and they are the ones who voted against extending modular housing leases and to halt new desperately-needed new supportive housing. 

The irony is ABC could have certainly got the two-thirds majority they needed on this motion if they hadn’t booted Rebecca Bligh earlier this year for opposing their halt on supportive housing. 

This week I have a motion on the agenda Wednesday to stop developer handouts and help protect what’s left of low-income housing. Other items on the agenda I hope to see passed include a motion from Councillor Fry on increasing youth participation in politics and a motion from Councillor Maloney promoting child safety on Halloween. 

In other news, thanks to a whistleblower at Park Bard we now know that Ken Sim and ABC are pushing for over $15 million in cuts from maintenance and programs at our parks and community centres and programs. 

With Ken Sim’s unilateral attempt to abolish the democratically-elected Park Board off the rails, we’re focused on the fight to stop these cuts. To support this effort, you can send a message to Mayor and Council here.

I can’t emphasize enough how reckless and cynical ABC’s “Zero Means Zero” tax gimmick is. Every new potential cut we learn about makes me that much more determined to finish what we started in the by-election in next year’s general election. 

As I said Friday at the party, it’s going to be a lot of work to make sure we evict Ken Sim and ABC and elect a majority committed to fighting for Vancouver. But it’s also going to be a lot of fun.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for details on the next COPE party!