Incumbent MLA: Sunita Dhir (BC NDP | 2024)
Candidates:
BC NDP: Sunita Dhir
BC Conservatives: Jaime Stein
BC Greens: John Atoyebi
CentreBC: Alan Beesley
2024 Results:
BC NDP - 48.4%
BC Conservatives - 46.0%
BC Greens - 5.5%
In 2024, Vancouver-Langara was the only seat in British Columbia to go from having a BC United MLA to a BC NDP MLA. The flip provided the BC NDP with indispensable buffer room, and they’ll need the riding again if they hope to stay in government.
In the 2010s, BC Liberal riding after BC Liberal riding west of Main Street flipped. South Granville (formerly much of Fairview), Point Grey, and Yaletown (the northern half of False Creek) fell like dominoes. All of the aforementioned ridings slipped away from the BC Liberals one-by-one as their advantage with white middle-class college-educated urbanites eroded.
However, Vancouver-Langara stayed red thanks to the cultivation of ties to the diverse communities of the riding by successive heavyweight MLAs like Carole Taylor, Moira Stilwell, and Michael Lee. While the New Democrats kept gaining in the riding, the BC Liberal connection with Punjabis, Chinese (both older Hong Konger households in Marpole and newer arrivals from Mainland China in Oakridge), Filipinos, and the Jewish community in Vancouver-Langara simply was too much to overcome, at least until 2024.
It took two lucky breaks for the New Democrats to take the riding. First were favourable riding boundary changes that extended the riding’s borders east to encompass much more of NDP-friendly Sunset, whilst ceding much of the BC Liberal heartland in central Vancouver to an expanded Vancouver-Quilchena and a newly recreated Vancouver-Little Mountain.
Second was the unprecedented collapse of the rebranded BC Liberals, which led to formidable incumbent Michael Lee bowing out of the race. Even though Lee had scouted a replacement in business executive Jaime Stein, the total withdrawal of BC United candidates across the board rendered his candidacy moot and severed the link of incumbency.
This set the stage for a battle between language instructor Sunita Dhir of the BC NDP and Langara College professor Bryan Breguet for the Conservatives. In Sunset, Dhir’s strong connections to the Punjabi community paid off in spades, especially combined with Filipino outreach. Already amenable to the NDP, the neighbourhood swung even further to the left.
In Oakridge, Breguet managed to rally most of the old BC Liberal coalition to maintain their dominance between 41st and 49th Avenue. Aside from holding steady among wealthy white homeowners in the riding, he made sure to court Michael Lee’s formidable Chinese-Canadian organizing network and tapped into the anxieties of the local Jewish community in the aftermath of October 7th.
The race was decided in battleground Marpole. Running from 57th Avenue all the way to to the Fraser River, the neighbourhood is starkly polarized along 70th Avenue. The streets above it resemble a more middle-class extension of Oakridge, with smaller townhomes and a moderate lean to the right. Below it are low-rise apartments and rentals that are NDP strongholds - they have swept every poll south of 70th Avenue since the 2017 provincial election.
Vancouver-Langara will be a crucial test of the NDP’s grip over the City of Vancouver. Jaime Stein is returning for another kick at the can, this time under the Conservative banner to face off against Dhir.
The Greens are fielding lawyer John Atoyebi, while CentreBC has a lawyer of their own, Alan Beesley carrying their banner. Dhir will need to hold onto her strength in Sunset and make sure Atoyebi does not peel off votes among frustrated renters in Marpole, while Stein will need to supercharge turnout in Oakridge with his deep ties to the Jewish community, reactivate the Chinese volunteer groups and keep Dhir’s margins down in Sunset to make her a one-term MLA.
Hugh Chan is an International Relations student at the University of British Columbia who sometimes moonlights as a political reporter.
