Meena Wong officially announced she’s running as the Coalition of Progressive Electors’ mayoral candidate Friday morning in front of city hall. Although she still has to win the official thumbs-up from party members at the nomination meeting Sept. 7 at the Japanese Hall, this seems a mere formality seeing as nobody else in the party is asking for the job.
It is the Vancouver Coastal Health mental health recovery worker’s second stab at seeking public office after running as the NDP candidate for Vancouver South in the 2011 federal election, where she came in third with 19 per cent of votes. If elected, Wong would be the city’s first female mayor and first one of Chinese descent. She also served previously as an assistant to former NDP MP Olivia Chow, herself seeking head office in Toronto.
Wong, 53, said she wants to try and make North America’s most expensive city more affordable for non-affluent residents.
“We have a duty to each other and to this city to right what is wrong,” she told a small crowd of supporters and media. “We have a duty to our children who cannot afford to live in this city, we have a duty to seniors who cannot afford to age with dignity… I think Vancouver housing prices are way too high and as a city government, we need to look at that.”
Wong, who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong as a young woman and speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghainese and even a bit of French, said affordable housing is the biggest challenge facing Vancouver.
“There has been much talk about affordable housing and homelessness in the past few years but the number of people sleeping on our streets has only increased since 2008. It is time to move from words to action and end homelessness now. That means banning renovictions, protecting renters and building public housing. I want to create a Vancouver that everyone can afford and can enjoy.”
Wong said she also wanted to introduce a living wage policy that would see the minimum wage set at around $20, make childcare services cheaper and more widely available, and to lower transit fares while simultaneously improving bus service.
She was non-committal when asked about the need to build a subway to UBC.
“I think there are other alternatives. I’ll need to hear the voices of other people, of residents along the corridor and small businesses and also stakeholders like the drivers and cyclists and everyone. We need to hear what their opinions are and maybe we can come to some kind of consensus. It will cost three billion and where will the money come from?”
The election is Nov. 15.
