Credit: Jean Swanson on Twitter

Jean Swanson has chosen to kick off her campaign at Shaughnessy Park

It would be unfair to say that the municipal election race in Vancouver has been heating up lately. It’s more like things have officially moved out of the frying pan and into a commercial grade wood-fired oven.

But in the midst of the blaze, Jean Swanson is hoping to ride a freeze to victory.

The anti-poverty advocate ran for a city council seat during last October’s byelection. Swanson came second to the Non-Partisan Association’s Hector Bremner, who is now waging his own campaign for mayor separate from the party.

Part of what made Swanson’s campaign as an independent (with support from the left-wing Coalition of Progressive Electors) resonate with many was her two-pronged platform to fix housing: a promised rent freeze and a mansion tax.



And although it seems as though she’s gunning for a council seat instead of trying to replace Gregor Robertson as mayor, Swanson still has a large throng of supporters behind her, even after the byelection loss.

This coming Saturday morning (June 9), she’s taking her group to rally in Shaughnessy Park, smack-dab in the richest part of the city.

“By rallying together we can send a clear message: no longer will people be sleeping on the streets in the midst of such enormous wealth, including often-empty mansions worth over $40 million,” a Facebook posting for the event says.

Expect it to be well attended, given that Swanson has proven herself a savvy user of social media: her Facebook page has just under 1,000 more likes than Bremner’s.

If anything can put fear into the hearts and minds of Vancouver’s most wealthy, this is it.