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This is no small feat. Vancouver’s current city council is a dynamic cross-partisan mix. Despite the long-time presence of political parties in the city, for the first time in decades, no party has a majority, and Mayor Kennedy Stewart was elected as the city’s second-ever independent mayor. And, in a historic first, eight of our council’s 11 members are women.

What has unfolded in Vancouver (and in many other municipalities) stands in marked contrast with how the climate debate has unfolded federally and in most provinces. Across the country, we have tragically seen the urgent need for climate action turned into a political wedge issue. Carbon pricing has been weaponized by parties on all sides, despite the fact that it is an incremental policy that only starts to get us where we need to go. In the face of rising global recognition that we face a climate emergency, so much of Canadian politics is still squabbling over marginal matters. At the federal level, and in far too many provinces, we haven’t yet seen our political leaders “unite behind the science,” as the young Swedish climate champion Greta Thunberg has urged.

So, how have bold climate plans in Vancouver passed unanimously? It certainly helped that our council is made up of people who accept the science of climate change. We were ready to take a bold stand, and to take some political risks.

What made the most significant difference is that across our political differences, we as elected leaders heeded the words of the young people in our city. When the climate emergency motion came to council, hundreds of local student strikers — mostly high school students who are not yet permitted to vote — hand-wrote letters encouraging council to pass the motion. They rallied outside city hall.