Dan Fumano: Despite silence from his ABC party leaders, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim still has key backers After a very long week for Ken Sim — and a very brief press conference — the mayor's party still has key support from business leaders |
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Dan Fumano: Despite silence from his ABC party leaders, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim still has key backers
After a very long week for Ken Sim — and a very brief press conference — the mayor's party still has key support from business leaders
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During Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s tumultuous week in which he had to apologize for making bogus criminal allegations against a council colleague, his own ABC party has remained silent, refusing to either defend or criticize him publicly.
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But some key supporters, including big players from the local business community, still back him.
Dan Fumano: Despite silence from his ABC party leaders, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim still has key backers Back to video
Some top ABC donors from previous years said the recent scandal was “not a good look” for the mayor. Still, the fact Sim apologized matters, they said, and the lack of what they see as better options means business leaders are not abandoning the party just yet.
One prominent ABC supporter, Peter Armstrong, founder of the Rocky Mountaineer train company, believes Vancouver is doing better now than when ABC took office four years ago, and he doesn’t see viable alternatives from other parties.
“Has Ken done everything we’ve hoped? No, but it takes time,” said Armstrong, a longtime influential player in local politics. “You don’t take a city that’s been mismanaged for a decade, and turn it around in one four-year cycle.”
“I give Ken full marks,” Armstrong said.
Sim backtracked and apologized after it came to light last week that he had falsely accused COPE Coun. Sean Orr of distributing illegal drugs on the streets last Christmas.
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It’s an embarrassing look for Sim. The mayor’s office declined to confirm or deny the details, reported Wednesday by CBC’s Justin McElroy, that Sim apparently told his own team members that the untrue accusation supposedly stemmed — solely — from the mayor glancing a photo waved at him by a stranger at a public event. The mayor’s office did not answer whether anyone else had seen the image or could even corroborate Sim’s story about being shown a photo.
Either way, there was apparently no real photo of Orr.
The COPE councillor has long supported harm reduction and a regulated drug supply, but denied he’d ever handed out drugs on the streets, calling the fake allegations harmful.
Sim seemed contrite and tired at his public appearance Wednesday. The press conference’s subject, ostensibly, was the plan for a car-free stretch of downtown Granville Street during this summer’s FIFA World Cup, but reporters were far more eager to get answers to their unasked questions from the previous day when Sim rushed away from the media after an extremely brief, bizarre appearance at city hall.
Tuesday at city hall, Sim appeared on stage alone. At Wednesday’s press conference on Granville, most of his ABC council colleagues stood behind him, looking sombre. None of his ABC caucus colleagues had, over the past week, made any public statements supporting the mayor, but none had publicly criticized him either.
ABC leadership also did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls this week, declining to answer whether Sim might face any internal party discipline, or if his recent conduct might jeopardize his nomination as ABC’s mayoral candidate for this year’s elections.
ABC’s executive and the rest of the party’s elected caucus appeared to be following the time-honoured political tradition of remaining silent about a scandal to avoid adding fuel to a story they hope will eventually lose steam.
But when facing reporters Wednesday, Sim fielded questions about whether he still enjoyed the full support of his ABC colleagues, or if they had privately raised concerns about his leadership.
Subdued and serious, the mayor replied: “We’ve had conversations about the mistake, absolutely. … We talked about the situation and how we got to this place, and, yeah, we had some pretty frank conversations.”
Two of Sim’s former ABC teammates, now mayoral rivals, Rebecca Bligh and Kareem Allam, are both competing with their former party for votes and donations.
Bligh, elected in 2022 as an ABC councillor and now running for mayor with Vote Vancouver, said the recent episode illustrates a failure of Sim’s judgment, and “diminishes the office” of mayor.
“For a long time there have been warning signs about this mayor’s judgment and priorities,” Bligh said. “What happened this week is part of a broader pattern. Vancouverites are seeing it clearly now.”
Allam, ABC’s 2022 campaign manager, went further, saying the recent false-allegation scandal merits Sim’s resignation.
“He’s lost the moral authority to govern. Not only because of the untruths, but the lack of contrition and remorse in his apology,” Allam said. “This erosion of confidence in ethics can only be overcome by his resignation.”
Whatever Sim’s rivals say, there are no signs, at least outwardly, that his leadership of ABC is in jeopardy, and he says he’s running for re-election this year.
Meanwhile, in addition to Armstrong, some of ABC’s other prominent backers say they still back the mayor and his party.
Postmedia reached out to several people listed in campaign finance reports as maximum donors to ABC in past years. They include business owners and senior executives at major local companies, and well-known figures in Vancouver political circles.
Most spoke on the condition they would not be identified by name. They all said ABC still, broadly speaking, appears to have the local business community’s support — although there were varying views around whether that support has diminished, and by how much.
dfumano@postmedia.com
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