My 5 Vancouver Takeaways from the 2021 Federal Election

The 2021 federal election is over and the jokes are in. Mostly, they have to deal with the fact that the results are more or less the same as the 2019 contest.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a completely unnecessary election and, despite his self-back-patting last night, found himself in almost exactly the same position as last time.

It’ll be another Liberal minority government with the support of the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois.

But even as the seat distribution around the country looks basically identical, there were some important developments for our city. For once, they didn’t involve a permit. Let’s see what Canada’s 44th federal election had in store for Vancouver.

1. It doesn’t really matter who you are, as long as you run with the right party

The country was watching Vancouver Granville, as many pundits liked to say in the lead-up to the election. Jody Wilson-Raybould’s former riding interesting for many reasons. For one, it’s a huge, diverse riding with a vacant seat. It also represented an interesting choice for electors between toeing party lines and choosing good candidates.

The Liberal candidate Taleeb Noormohamed did absolutely everything he could to avoid answering questions during the campaign after his house flipping past was exposed. He was an absolute ghost. As of this morning, Vancouver Granville was about as tight as any riding in Canada, and Noormohamed was right there.

2. …But Vancouver Granville may be fundamentally changing

It’s still too early to call, but the fact this riding was close at all to electing NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai may mean that we’re in a new era. After all, Vancouver Granville is home to some of the richest postal codes in the country. But it’s also big and incredibly diverse.

It’s actually the second election in a row that Vancouver Granville residents have shown some real thought at the ballot box after electing Wilson-Raybould as an Independent in 2019.

3. Everything else was pretty boring

Other than Liberal Hedy Fry winning Vancouver Centre with a slightly smaller margin than her usual romp, everything else unfolded almost exactly as expected in Vancouver. The Liberals won Vancouver Quadra and Vancouver South, while the NDP easily took Vancouver East and Vancouver Kingsway. Ho hum.

4. The Green Party looks pretty irrelevant

Annamie Paul’s party accumulated just over 2 percent of the popular vote. That’s not good. And while B.C. is usually fairly friendly territory for the Greens, there wasn’t much of that happening this election—especially in Vancouver, where the strongest Green candidate (Cheryl Matthew in Vancouver East) garnered some 7 percent of the vote. Ouch.

5. There have to be better places for campaign parties than Boston Pizza

I mean, come on.