Each election, the North Shore News asks the candidates in every riding to fill out a questionnaire on local issues. Today, we bring you the responses from North Vancouver candidates. Click on the PDF at the bottom of this story to see our North Vancouver election grid.
Like its two North Shore neighbours, the North Vancouver electoral district has also landed on many pundits’ “ridings to watch” lists and the parties appear to be treating it as a very close race.
In 2011, the Conservatives won with more than 47 per cent of the vote, to the Liberals’ 29, New Democrats’ 16 per cent and Greens’ five per cent.
In 2012 electoral boundary redrawings, the riding lost the eastern portion from Lynn Creek to Deep Cove to the new riding of Burnaby North-Seymour. Voters in that area heavily favoured the Conservatives in 2011.
The seat has mostly been held by Conservative parties in recent decades. The Liberals’ Don Bell won the riding in 2004 and 2008, but prior to that, it was held by Ted White since 1993 as a Reform, Alliance and Conservative MP.
The riding drew campaign stops from Elizabeth May, Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, during the 11-week-long campaign, often an indication of how much energy a party is focusing on a riding.
Big issues in the riding, as judged by what the party leaders were here to talk about: affordable housing (or the lack thereof), transportation and traffic as well as the closure of the Canadian Coast Guard station in Kitsilano.
As demographics go, the riding is slightly older and wealthier than the Canadian average. Of its 45,000 households, roughly 30,000 are owned by their occupants. The average household income in 2010 was higher than the national average at $95,868. The riding contains wealthy ’burbs as well as a working class core in the City of North Vancouver.
Voters in 2011 had a 67.7-per-cent turnout rate, higher than the national 61.1 per cent.
The riding is home to numerous Port Metro Vancouver terminals, Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards and Squamish Nation land.
