One year in, Kennedy Stewart is as much Vancouver's lobbyist-in-chief as he is mayor

One year after being elected mayor of Vancouver, Kennedy Stewart has three big priorities: A lot more affordable housing, a SkyTrain line to UBC, and an overhauled drug policy that allows a safe supply of opioids to addicts. 

And all of them, ultimately, are out of his power.

"I know there are a ton of other things on the agenda but [you have to] have your objectives and your mission clear," Stewart said in an interview with CBC News marking his first year as Vancouver's mayor. 

A former MP and SFU political scientist, Stewart knows full well that the three issues he's chosen to focus on can't happen without money or legislative changes from the federal government. 

But he's comfortable focusing as much on lobbying higher governments as things he can control because of what he hears from the public.

"I found that in this job there's a million ways I could go. So that's why I'm doing these three things until the public says to me, 'Do something else.'" 

Minority council 'muddling through'

Stewart is Vancouver's first independent mayor since Mike Harcourt, leading the city's first "minority council" — where no political party holds a majority of seats — for the first time since 1986.

That has led to an energetic council and long meetings;107 motions have been forward in this council's first 12 months, a rate more than double that of the previous Vision Vancouver majority government.

At the same time, it's led to an often slowly moving policy agenda: staff have been asked to update or review dozens of bylaws and policies over the past year. And meetings can often grind to a halt as staff determine whether amendments to motions are out of order or would contradict other city policies.

"The term is muddling through," says Stewart, who said he's working to be a more efficient chair of council meetings while helping to ensure motions councillors put forward won't be ruled out of order.

But he's also focused on being an amiable team player and letting debate play out for as long as necessary; likely a reason why — with the exception of NPA councillor Colleen Hardwick — nobody around the council table is a persistent critic of the mayor yet.      

"My top priority in terms of chairing council is to make sure that everybody feels included and listened to and they've been dealt with fairly," he said.

"It does take a little longer. But in the end it's worth it because it kind of keeps the peace."

Whither empty homes tax and electoral reform?

Stewart has moved on a number of his campaign promises, including increasing staff to reduce permit times, creating a renters advocacy office, and aggressively pushing for more medium and high-density rental housing throughout the city.

Other campaign promises have moved to the back burner though, including a promise to triple Vancouver's empty homes tax from its current one per cent at the municipal level.

"What I don't want to do is collapse housing values," said Stewart, who argued that if the federal government moved forward with its own speculation tax, it would likely be sufficient when combined with the provincial speculation tax.

"I think we've seen a downturn in the upper end of the market at this point. So we have to make sure that our policy is correct."

Also no longer discussed is a pledge on electoral reform that would have Vancouver move away from an at-large voting system toward a system of neighbourhood constituencies.

"I have to recognize too that my job is to do what the citizens want. They're not clamouring for electoral reform," he said.

"They're clamouring for more rental housing that's more affordable, so those are priorities I'm working on."

Those priorities, in case you forgot, are more affordable housing, a SkyTrain to UBC, and drug reform.

They're the issues Stewart will continue to talk about, and the ones he wants success to be measured by.

Even if it means he's less of a bylaw-focused mayor, and more of a lobbyist-in-chief.

"There's a lot of other things going on in the city," he said.

"But ... every morning, when I wake up, those are the three things I think about."