Jean Swanson

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Jean Swanson Template:Postnominals (born Template:Birth based on age as of date)[1] is a Canadian politician, anti-poverty activist, and writer in Vancouver, British Columbia. She represented the left-wing Coalition of Progressive Electors on Vancouver City Council as one of Vancouver's 10 at-large city councillors from 2018 to 2022.[2]

Activism

In the 1980s, Swanson worked with the BC Solidarity Coalition, as well as Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA).[3]

Swanson is a coordinator of Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), an organization dedicated to the welfare of the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods.[4][5] Swanson also founded and works with the group End Legislated Poverty, a British Columbia coalition with stated aims to "educate and organize in order to make governments reduce and end poverty".[6][3] She was national chair of the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO).[7] She authored Poor Bashing: The Politics of Exclusion.

Vancouver City Council

Script error: No such module "Unsubst". During Swanson's time on Vancouver City Council, she consistently voted for social housing while opposing market-rate housing developments.[8]

In 2017, during her campaign for Vancouver City Council, she called for a rent freeze.[9] She said that she would not support the construction of market-rate housing, as she believed it would cause gentrification and increase rents.[10] In 2019, she voted against allowing a 5-storey apartment building (where one-fifth of the units were below market rates) in Kitsilano, a 35-storey building in Woodland, and 79 rental units in the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood, arguing they would gentrify the neighbourhood and displace residents.[11][12][13] That year, she also voted against allowing the conversion of a single-family lot into 21 townhomes, arguing that the rents would be too high and that only the landlord would benefit.[14]

In 2022, she voted against a 39-storey building (with one-fifth of the units set aside for below market rate rents), arguing that the building would lead to increases in rents in nearby buildings.[15]

In 2021, she voted in favour of allowing 12-storey apartment buildings of social housing without a rezoning application.[16]

In 2022, she voted against a major rezoning plan for the Broadway corridor that permitted 40-storey mixed-use developments near SkyTrain stations, as well as the replacement of older, small 10-unit buildings with 15- to 20-storey buildings. She argued that this was not the "housing we need for the working class".[17] During the debates on rezoning, she asked "If people are driving into Vancouver for jobs, wouldn't it be better to increase the jobs elsewhere outside of Vancouver so people don't have to drive so far?"[18]

Awards and recognition

In 2016, she was inducted into the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour, with the grade of member.[19] Swanson was also the recipient of the 2007 Carleton University Kroeger College Award for Citizenship and Community Affairs, an award recognizing "creativity, persistence, and overall leadership in demonstrating the value of a locally based initiative."[3] Swanson was chosen for the award "for her tireless work against poverty in Canada. (She) is a private individual living in Vancouver who the jury concluded best represented the qualities of commitment, leadership, and community ties."[3]

In 2021, she was the subject of Teresa Alfield's short documentary film Jean Swanson: We Need a New Map.[20]

Electoral record

Template:2018 Vancouver municipal election/City Council Template:2017 Vancouver municipal by-elections/City Council

1988 Vancouver mayoral election[21] Vote %
Gordon Campbell (NPA) 75,545 62.58
Jean Swanson (COPE / NDP) 45,178 37.42

References

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  3. ↑ a b c d "News Release: Carleton University's Kroeger College Announces 2007 Winners of the Arthur Kroeger Awards", March 28, 2007 quoted at [1]Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
  4. ↑ Swanson, Jean. Downtown Eastside Seeks Foreign Aid, The Tyee Magazine, Oct 18, 2007
  5. ↑ Swanson, Jean. Why poverty is worse than it was 30 years ago, Canadian Dimension Magazine, February 21, 2006
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Thobani, Sunera. Exalted Subjects: Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in Canada, University of Toronto Press, 2007, Template:ISBN
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Charlie Smith, "Five Canadian films to watch in VIFF Short Forum". The Georgia Straight, September 23, 2021.
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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