The president of the Vancouver Police Union and a self-described community builder with a background in the tech industry will both represent ABC Vancouver as council candidates in the April 5 byelection.
Ralph Kaisers and Jaime Stein made their intentions known Thursday after rumours had been circulating in political circles for a couple of weeks about their desire to run with Mayor Ken Sim’s party.
“We are here for a shared purpose — building a safer, stronger and more vibrant Vancouver,” Kaisers told reporters from a pier at the Olympic Village.
Kaisers served as president of the police union when the organization endorsed ABC Vancouver in the 2022 election campaign. The endorsement was unprecedented, and caused the Stop the Sweeps coalition to protest outside ABC Vancouver offices and events.
At the time, Kaisers said in a news release that public safety was the No. 1 issue in the Oct. 15, 2022 election. He said citizens were afraid to walk the streets of their neighbourhoods and small business owners were struggling to keep their doors open.
“The VPU feels safety is a right — for everyone,” he said. “Electing Ken Sim and an ABC majority will ensure that police and other front-line responders will have the resources they need to protect and serve Vancouverites.”
Added Kaisers: “Vancouverites don’t feel safe in their city. The VPU board and its members are committed to taking action to change that — and if it means getting political, so be it. This municipal election, we need to demand accountability out of city hall because safety is a right and everybody deserves to feel safe.”
At the news conference, Kaisers said that he has taken a leave of absence from his post as president of the union. Kaisers, who is a sergeant, has been president for more than five years and served seven years as vice-president.
He has been a police officer for 34 years.
Public safety
He and Stein both identified public safety as their top priority, with Stein saying he would lean on the experience of Kaisers and Coun. Brian Montague, a retired VPD officer, to make Vancouver a safer city.
“Vancouver faces real challenges that demand practical solutions,” Stein said. “We need innovative approaches to public safety so every resident feels secure in their neighbourhood, because a safe city is a strong city.”
This will not be Stein’s first attempt at winning a seat in government, although his run in 2024 was short-lived. He was BC United’s candidate in Vancouver-Langara for the provincial election until leader Kevin Falcon suspended the party’s campaign in August.
Stein described himself on his LinkedIn page as a former tech executive, public policy advocate and “healthcare champion."
After losing his father to leukemia in 2006, he said he partnered with Canadian Blood Services to raise $12.5 million for establishing Canada's national public cord blood bank. He's also a board member of Canadians for Leading Edge Alzheimer's Research.
“As head of customer success at BroadbandTV (BBTV), I led a department that achieved record-low creator churn rates and exceeded sales targets by 115 per cent,” he wrote on his page.
“At Taplytics, I reorganized the customer success organization to deliver 98.5 per cent gross revenue retention during the pandemic, while at Hootsuite, I led strategic engagements across 14 countries that drove $12M in enterprise revenue.”
In 2024, he served on the public affairs subcommittee of the Antisemitism and Israel Crisis Response Team at the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. Stein said he worked with elected officials to develop public policy “that strengthens our community's safety and security.”
Rebecca Bligh
The official naming of Kaisers and Stein comes one week after ABC Vancouver expelled Coun. Rebecca Bligh from the party. A news release from ABC said Bligh was “not aligned with the shared priorities and team-oriented approach that defines ABC Vancouver.”
Bligh told BIV that she has seen a shift in the party’s values since elected in 2022.
“It was stated many times [during the campaign] that Ken valued diverse opinions and lived experience, and that he wants everyone to speak up and share their perspectives to get to the best possible outcome in policy,” she said.
“And what I've experienced over the last two years is a shift away from that as a value that I believe ABC was about when we ran in 2022 — to more of a top-down approach to policy, and being updated and informed, as opposed to collaborative, generative discussion around policy.”
Kaisers and Stein will face candidates from COPE (Sean Orr), the Greens (Annette Reilly), TEAM for a Livable Vancouver (Colleen Hardwick and Theodore Abbott) and OneCity (Lucy Maloney) in the byelection.
Two seats became vacant at council after OneCity’s Christine Boyle was elected in the October provincial election as the MLA for Vancouver-Little Mountain. The Greens’ Adriane Carr then retired in January.
ABC Vancouver holds seven of the 11 seats on council.
X/@Howellings
