Vancouver Mayoral Debate: Real Estate, Housing Affordability, and Related Issues

Kareem Allam has spent more than 25 years engaged in municipal, provincial, and federal governance. Currently a partner at Richardson Strategy Group, he is a former Director of Public Policy at the Vancouver Board of Trade and served a term on the Fraser Health Board of Directors.  He has also been a senior policy advisor to federal and provincial ministers, senior civil servants, and Indigenous chiefs and councils. Kareem also has a deep belief in the two social contracts that underpin our society: that a thriving economy is necessary to pay for world-class social programs, and that each generation has a responsibility to look after the next. It is the erosion of these social contracts in Vancouver that has led young families and working-class people to leave our city. Getting them back, more than anything else, that has driven him to run for Mayor.

Rebecca Bligh is a community leader, two-term Vancouver City Councillor and former President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Throughout her career, she has been guided by a simple belief: meaningful leadership begins with service and grows through responsibility. As a candidate for Mayor of Vancouver, Rebecca believes leadership is less about power and more about service. She is passionate about building a city where people can afford to live, businesses can thrive, neighbourhoods remain strong, and residents can once again feel confident that City Hall is focused on the issues that matter most.

Pete Fry is a Vancouver City Councillor. Born in Ireland to Anglo-Trinidadian parents, he immigrated to Vancouver as a child and has called Strathcona home since 1988. Following a decades-long career in community development, advocacy, and communications; championing small businesses, arts organizations, social development, and nonprofits, Pete was elected in 2018. On Council, he has been a driving force behind tenant protections, housing affordability, pedestrian safety, regulatory reform and green initiatives earning re-election in 2022. Since then, he has stood as City Hall’s most vigilant watchdog and now brings that same accountable, experienced leadership to his 2026 campaign for mayor.

Colleen Hardwick is a former Vancouver City Councillor (2018-2022). Colleen was born, raised, and educated in Vancouver through a B.A. in Geography and Political Science in 1983, and a Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from UBC in 2011. While working on a planning project in 2010, Colleen sought to consult with residents online within specific neighbourhood boundaries. When she could not find a solution, she set out to invent one through PlaceSpeak, a pioneering location-based community consultation platform designed to authenticate online public consultation in order to facilitate evidence-based decision-making and policy development. Since receiving the support of the National Research Council of Canada for technology validation in 2011, Colleen has continued to advance the platform’s technology and processes, and is a frequent speaker on the subject of online citizen engagement.

Dr. Alexandra Flynn (she/her) is the Primary Investigator and Director of the Housing Research Collaborative, which comprises CMHC and SSHRC-funded projects focused on Canada’s housing crisis: the Housing Assessment Resource Tools project and the Balanced Supply of Housing Node, as well as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Professional Programs at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law. Her teaching and research focus on municipal law and governance, administrative law, and property law. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers, public reports, media articles, and a book on how cities are legally understood in law and how they govern, including the overlapping geographies and governance of city spaces, and the formal and informal bodies that represent residents.

Dr. Thomas Davidoff (he/him) is a researcher at the Balanced Supply of Housing and an Associate Professor in the Real Estate and Strategy and Business Economics groups at the Sauder School of Business, UBC. Prior to joining UBC, Davidoff obtained degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and MIT, and worked in real estate development in Brooklyn and as an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley. While at UBC, Davidoff has advised the White House on housing and mortgage policy, and worked with two startup real estate intelligence companies. Davidoff’s research on aging, insurance, housing, and public policy has been published in leading journals in finance, real estate, and economics.