Chapter 1.
Vancouver government
structure since 1886

In a city as devoted to gardening as Vancouver, the question of whether City Council should be elected at large or by a system of wards might be thought of as one of our oldest perennials. Since incorporation, the question has bloomed - in the form of city-wide referendum votes - no less than five times.

This chapter provides a brief look at the history of city government as it relates to the wards/at-large question. The chapter closes with a point-form chronology of events since 1886.

Early days (1886 - 1910)

Vancouver officially became a city on April 6, 1886. Formerly the town of Granville, the fast-growing settlement was incorporated under a private member's bill in the provincial legislature and the Vancouver Corporation Act. In 1953, this act would be renamed the Vancouver Charter.

This incorporation marked an early difference between Vancouver and all other municipalities in the province, which are created and governed under the Municipal Act. As is discussed later on, the Charter is much like the Municipal Act in many ways, but remains a separate statute.

The first municipal election was held on May 3, 1886. It was an at-large vote which elected ten aldermen and the mayor. At that time, there was no voters list, 499 votes were cast. In one of the first by-laws passed by Council, five wards were created, each electing two aldermen for one-year terms of office. The only major structural change in the next few decades came in 1904, when the number of wards was increased to six.

Experimentation and reform (1910 - 1935)

In 1911, the City increased the number of wards to eight. This accompanied the expansion of municipal boundaries to include the Hastings Suburban Lands and District Lot 301 (now the neighbourhoods of Cedar Cottage, Kensington, and Riley Park).

That change brought the total number of aldermen to 16. In the year 1916, however, the City passed a by-law reducing the number of aldermen per ward from two to one. Until that time, aldermen hoping to be elected by a particular ward had been required to live in that ward, but the 1916 by-law eliminated this requirement.

A referendum in 1920 brought in an experiment with proportional representation, then being tried out in a number of North American cities. Only three years later, another referendum brought back the eight-ward, single-member system.

At the end of the "Roaring Twenties," Point Grey and South Vancouver were amalgamated with the City. This expansion of the municipal boundaries brought with it an increase of four new wards, raising the total number of aldermen to 12. As numerous commentators have noted, the expansion also changed the social makeup of the city, adding to it the professional-managerial group living in Point Grey.

The at-large era (1935 - 1973)

In 1935, with reform-minded mayor Gerry McGeer in office, Vancouverites voted on the question, "Are you in favour of abolishing the ward system?" The result was decisive, with a 68 percent majority of voters choosing to move to an at-large system with a reduced City Council of eight aldermen. The first at-large election was held a year later.

Although a variety of proposals and reports recommending further changes to the city system were proposed over the following years, it was not until the 1950s that any significant changes actually occurred. In 1953, the Vancouver Incorporation Act was completely revised and renamed the Vancouver Charter.

The following year, Vancouver followed the trend of many other cities with changes intended to increase the professionalism of the municipal staff. These included adopting a version of the City Manager model of government which had become popular in other parts of the continent. In the final significant change of the decade, Council membership was increased to ten aldermen in recognition of the growth of the city's population.

Reviews and referenda (1973 - 1988)

The social and political changes of the 1960s found expression in a new activism among citizens, who were less inclined to leave decision-making in the hands of Council and the municipal civil service. Electoral reform once again became an issue, and the first referendum on wards was put to the voters in 1973, on the recommendation of Council's Community Development Committee. A 59 percent majority of voters chose to keep the at-large system and retain the same number of aldermen.

The question returned in 1978 with a new referendum, in which a slim majority of 52 percent voted in favour of wards. In response, Council appointed a Government Review Commission to look into the issue. After extensive research and public consultation, the Commission delivered its report in the fall of 1979. Among its recommendations were a mixed system of five wards, each providing three members to Council. Two of these aldermen were to be elected by ward voters only, and one by the city voters as a whole. The report argued that this multiple-member wards would increase citizens' "access to someone sympathetic to his or her particular interests" on Council and "improve the quality of representation in the area concerned." Finally, the Commission recommended that the ward boundaries also be applied to election of the School and Park Boards and correspond to provincial constituencies.

Few of the Commission's recommendations were accepted by Council. Nonetheless, Council asked the provincial government to amend the Vancouver Charter in order to allow ward elections. The provincial government responded by asking for more information on the proposed ward system.

Accordingly, the City created a special committee of Council which held a series of public meetings in early 1982. In April of that year, Council decided that the City should have a full ward system, with one alderman elected in each of ten wards. The task of setting ward boundaries was postponed until progress was made with the Charter amendment at the provincial level and until population data from the 1981 Census was available. In late 1983, Council adopted a set of boundaries and sent them to Victoria in support of the City's request for the Charter amendment.

That amendment was finally passed in July 1987. However, the amended Charter also specified that the City's electoral system could only be changed with a 60 percent majority vote in a referendum. The City then appointed an Electoral Boundaries Commission to propose boundaries for ten one-member wards and recommend whether there should be separate referendum questions for the Park and School Boards.

New rules, new boundaries (1988 - 1996)

The Commission produced its report in August 1988 with a set of proposed boundaries and wording for the referendum question. It also recommended that Council, the School Board, and the Park Board all be covered by their own referendum question. Council adopted the recommendations, and the referendum was duly held on November 19 of the same year. (See Appendix 2 for a copy of the ballot and proposed boundaries.)

The referendum produced a 56 percent majority in favour of ten wards with the boundaries proposed by the Commission. The City's electoral system was not changed, however, because the 60 percent majority required by the Charter had not been achieved. In 1990, however, the provincial government introduced a significant change to all municipal elections in B.C. - including those in Vancouver - which lengthened aldermen's terms of office from two to three years.

The 60 percent requirement was eliminated in 1993 when the provincial government passed the Local Elections Reform Act. The Act replaced the sections of the Vancouver charter dealing with wards (which the Act calls "neighborhood constituencies") with new provisions which are discussed in the next chapter.

In November 1995, Council passed a motion which scheduled another referendum at the time of the 1996 general elections. In the same motion, it added the requirement of a 60 percent majority for any change to occur.

For further reading (see Bibliography for full references)

For two well-known and widely quoted articles on Vancouver political history, see Donald Gutstein's "Vancouver" in the 1983 book City Politics in Canada (edited by Warren Magnussun) and Paul Tennant's "Vancouver Civic Politics, 1929 - 1980" in Politics and Government of Urban Canada (edited by Lionel Feldman).

Both the 1979 Report of the City of Vancouver Governmental Review Commission and the 1988 Report of the City of Vancouver Electoral Boundaries Commission provide useful historical background and discussion of wards in Vancouver. In particular, pages 72 to 105 of the 1979 report provide a selection of the verbal and written arguments presented to the Commission and make lively reading.

Finally, Kennedy Stewart's 1995 MA thesis entitled "Citizens and Their Municipal Governments: Increasing Accountability" provides a historical analysis of Vancouver and Winnipeg voting patterns, along with a discussion of how election systems may influence voter participation.

Important dates in the history of Vancouver's election system

1872 - Newly entered into Confederation, British Columbia's legislature enacts the Municipal Act, which governs all B.C. Municipalities to date except Vancouver.

1886 - April 6: City of Vancouver incorporated under a private bill in the legislature called the Vancouver Incorporation Act (revised and renamed the Vancouver Charter in 1953).

May 3: First municipal election held at large. Council passes By-law 3, creating five wards electing two aldermen each. Mayor is elected at large. Terms are one year.

1904 - Number of wards increased to six.

1910 - Plebiscite held on whether some aldermen to be elected at large. Rejected by voters.

1911 - Number of wards increased to eight with annexation of Hastings Suburban Lands and District Lot 301.

1916 - Number of alderman elected per ward reduced from two to one, for total of eight. Ward residency requirement for aldermen is eliminated.

1920 - Plebiscite establishes proportional representation in Vancouver.

1923 - Single-member ward system re-established by plebiscite.

1927 - Two-year terms and staggered elections introduced, with one-half of council standing for election each year.

1929 - Vancouver, South Vancouver and Point Grey amalgamated. Council increased from eight to twelve wards.

1935 - December 11: Plebiscite asks, "Are you in favour of abolishing the wards system?" Majority of 67.9 percent vote to switch to at-large system, reducing number of Council members from twelve to eight.

1936 - First at-large election for Vancouver City Council since the year of the City's incorporation.

1953 - Vancouver Incorporation Act is revised and renamed the Vancouver Charter.

1956 - Council committee form of administration replaced with a Board of Administration, based on the City Manager form of municipal government found in many other North American cities. (The senior administrative officer of the city, the Commissioner of the Board of Administration, is renamed City Manager in 1974.)

1957 - Council increased to ten aldermen, reflecting growth of the city.

1973 - Following public consultation on electoral reform, Council's Community Development Committee recommends ward representation.

October 24: Plebiscite results in 58.8 percent vote to keep at-large system.

1978 - November 15: Plebiscite returns 51.5 percent in favour of wards.

1979 - April 23: Council appoints a commission to review the at-large/ward question and other issues of local governance.

November 29: The commission's report recommends a system of five wards electing three aldermen each, with two elected by ward voters only and one by voters of the city as a whole. Ward boundaries to apply also to School and Park Boards and to provincial electoral districts. Few of the proposals are accepted by Council.

1981 - March: Council requests provincial government to change the Vancouver Charter to allow elections by wards. The provincial government asks for more information, and a special committee of Council is created. The committee holds public meetings regarding wards across the city in early 1982.

1982 - April: Council votes to change Vancouver to a full ward system with ten wards each electing one alderman. Decision-making on the exact ward boundaries is deferred until 1981 Census is available and until progress has been made in getting the government to amend the City Charter.

November 20: General election. Referendum result is 57 percent in favour of wards. 1983 Council adopts ward boundaries submitted to the provincial government in support of City's request for change to the City Charter.

1987 - July: Vancouver Charter is amended to allow changes to electoral method. However, the amendment stipulates that such a change first requires a 60 percent majority of votes in a referendum. The Charter amendment requires the referendum question to specify the number of Council members to be elected, the boundaries of the wards, and number of Councillors per ward.

1988 - February: Council appoints Electoral Boundaries Commission to propose ward boundaries and recommend whether there should be separate referenda for the Park and School Boards.

August 25: Commission's report proposes new boundaries for ten wards and two referendum questions which are approved by Council and included in the November municipal elections.

November 19: Referendum result is 56 percent in favour of ten-ward system. Wards not instituted since 60 percent majority was required to change the system.

1990 - Terms of City Council members increased from two to three years.

1993 - July 29: Provincial government's Local Elections Reform Act amends the Vancouver Charter provisions dealing with municipal elections. Council may now pass a by-law to provide for all or some Councillors to be elected on a "neighborhood constituency basis" (i.e., by ward). By-law must be approved by the provincial government and no longer requires a 60 percent majority by referendum.

1995 - November 14: Council formally votes to hold a 1996 referendum on the election system. A 60 percent majority will be required for any change to be instituted.

[Previous Page] [Contents] [Next Page]

---

Comments or questions? Please contact info@city.vancouver.bc.ca

Last Updated: June, 1996
(c) 1996 City of Vancouver