Kennedy Stewart

Edward Charles Kennedy Stewart (born November 8, 1966) is a Canadian academic administrator and politician who served as the 40th mayor of Vancouver from 2018 to 2022.

Stewart was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1966 and raised in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

He earned his bachelor's degree in history from Acadia University.

Stewart is the first incumbent mayor to be defeated since 1980, when mayor Jack Volrich was upset by challenger Mike Harcourt.

After moving to Burnaby, British Columbia, in 1988, Stewart played bass guitar for the pop music band State of Mind.

In 1991, his band won three West Coast Music Awards.

In 1995, Stewart received his master's degree in political science from Simon Fraser University, and a PhD in government from the London School of Economics in 2003.

As an academic, Stewart has published research on citizen participation, democratic reform, and municipal governance.

His books include Local Government in Canada and Decrim: How We Decriminalized Drugs in British Columbia.

While serving as mayor, Stewart was on leave from teaching at Simon Fraser University's School of Public Policy.

In January 2023, Stewart returned to SFU as director of the Centre for Public Policy Research.

Stewart's wife, Jeanette Ashe, also teaches politics, at Douglas College.

On March 28, 2004, Stewart won the nomination for the New Democratic Party for the federal riding of Vancouver Centre in a close three-way race.

Although he lost in the 2004 general election by 4,230 votes, he increased the NDP's vote share in Vancouver Centre by 20 percentage points compared to the 2000 election.

Following the elimination of Canada's National Science Advisor in 2008, the bill aimed to create an independent science watchdog tasked with providing Parliament with sound scientific information and ensuring decisions are informed by the best available evidence.

Bill C-558 was endorsed by Evidence for Democracy, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, and the Centre for Science in the Public Interest.

Stewart put forward a proposal (Motion 428) for the House of Commons to begin accepting petitions electronically as a means to engage more Canadians in the democratic process.

It further proposed that short debates be triggered in Parliament if an online petition receives a significant number of signatures and is sponsored by at least five MPs. Stewart's proposal was endorsed by Ed Broadbent, Preston Manning, and a number of civil society groups.

He previously was the member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Burnaby—Douglas (2011–2015) and Burnaby South (2015–2018), serving in the House of Commons as a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP) caucus.

On February 25, 2011, Stewart secured the NDP nomination for the federal riding of Burnaby—Douglas in a first ballot victory.

He won the riding in the 2011 general election with 44 percent of the vote, and was re-elected with 35 percent of the vote in 2015.

In 2012, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair appointed Stewart as official opposition critic for science and technology and as a member of the standing committee on industry, science and technology.

In Parliament, he opposed the Conservative government's elimination of the long-form census and funding cuts for basic scientific research.

He tabled legislation (Motion 453) to protect scientific integrity in government departments and end the muzzling of federal scientists.

In 2013, Stewart introduced Bill C-558, The Parliamentary Science Officer Act.

In 2013, the Burnaby Newsleader named Stewart their "Newsmaker of the Year" for his community work on the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Stewart is an advocate for social housing and federal action to address BC's housing crisis.

Being opposed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative cabinet, Motion 428 passed the House of Commons by only two votes (142-140) on January 29, 2014.

It was widely viewed as a "surprise win" for the official opposition.

Stewart held public consultations with Burnaby residents on Kinder Morgan's proposal to build a new export-only, bitumen-based crude oil pipeline through his riding.

Stewart became a vocal opponent of the project, citing community concerns over property expropriation, decreasing housing values, increased tanker traffic in the Burrard Inlet, the use of temporary foreign workers, and the lack of benefits for British Columbia.

His constituency office helped local residents sign-up to participate in the National Energy Board's review of the project.

In 2014, he put forward a BC-specific affordable housing strategy (Motion 547) to recognize housing as a fundamental right, expand public investments in housing co-ops, maintain rent subsidies for low-income families, set targets for reducing and ending homelessness, and study the impact of investor speculation and housing vacancies on real estate prices.

His motion was endorsed by the City of Burnaby.

He was re-elected in the new riding of Burnaby South in the 2015 election.

Following the election, Stewart was re-appointed by Tom Mulcair as NDP critic for science.

In May 2018, Stewart announced his pending resignation from Parliament, in order to seek election as mayor of Vancouver as an independent candidate.

In August 2018, he publicly released his letter to the Speaker of House, Geoff Regan, confirming his resignation, effective September 14, 2018.

During the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, Stewart was declared the winner of the mayoral race by a margin of fewer than 1,000 votes over Ken Sim, the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) candidate.

In his bid for re-election in 2022, Stewart was defeated by Sim by more than 35,000 votes.