Coalition Vancouver’s Wai Young wages war on bike lanes

Reported by Roxanne Egan-Elliott

Mayoral candidate Wai Young, who once represented Vancouver South for the federal Conservatives, says any resemblance of her populist campaign to Doug Ford’s government in Ontario is unintentional.

Young, who formed her own party, Coalition Vancouver, uses the slogan “100 Per Cent for the People,” similar to Ford’s Government for the People.

“I think he copied me,” Young said outside a volunteer meeting at her campaign office at Main and 50th Avenue. “But that’s another election in another province and I don’t think that has anything to do with what we’re doing for the people of Vancouver,” said Young.

Young, one of 21 candidates running for mayor in the Oct. 20 municipal election represented Vancouver South from 2011 to 2015.

Best known for opposition to bike lanes

Young has become best known for her position on removing what she refers to as “ideological bike lanes” and if she becomes mayor, she has vowed to rip up existing lanes and not build future ones.

Annie Bulaso, a long-time Young supporter, said her biggest concerns are being addressed by Coalition Vancouver.

“Lower taxes, clean city,” Bulaso said outside Young’s campaign office. “I like her platform.”

The University Women’s Club of Vancouver held an event where Young, alongside mayoral candidates including Shauna Sylvester, an independent, answered questions about housing, violence against women and the opioid crisis.

Wai’s critics weigh in

Janette McIntosh, who attended the event and said she will not be voting for Young and was not convinced that Young should be the mayor. McIntosh thought Young focused too much on her competition rather than placing focus on her policies she plans to put in place.

“I would have hoped that Wai Young could have just refrained from putting words in other people’s mouths and just stuck to her own,” McIntosh said.