Vancouver Kingsway

Vancouver Kingsway follows the diagonal path of Kingsway — one of the city's oldest roads, originally a trail linking New Westminster to the coast — through the heart of east Vancouver. The riding takes in most of the Kensington–Cedar Cottage, Renfrew–Collingwood, and Victoria–Fraserview neighbourhoods, bounded roughly by Broadway to the north, 41st Avenue to the south, Clark and Knight Streets to the west, and Boundary Road to the east. More than 54% of the riding's population are immigrants, and three pan-ethnic groups dominate: East Asian (35.5%), European (27.6%), and Southeast Asian (19.4%). At 9.9%, the riding has the highest proportion of Buddhist residents of any federal electoral district in Canada.

Candidates

Don Davies (NDP) A lawyer by training, Davies holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a law degree. Before entering Parliament, he worked as a labour representative, policy advisor, and advocate on health and safety, employment standards, and transportation policy. A long-time resident of the Kensington neighbourhood, he was first elected in Vancouver Kingsway in 2008 and served as the NDP's health critic. He is married to Sheryl Palm, a speech language pathologist at Vancouver Children's Hospital.

Virginia Bremner (Liberal) The youngest of ten children, Bremner immigrated from the Philippines to Vancouver at age seven. By 16 she was working two jobs in the Vancouver Kingsway area. She later worked on the front lines of mental health outreach, served as executive director of her local Business Improvement Association, held a position in the Office of the Premier of British Columbia, and most recently worked with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and World Trade Centre Vancouver helping businesses build international trade connections.

Carson Binda (Conservative) The Conservative candidate for the riding, Binda campaigned on economic recovery, public safety, and fiscal responsibility in one of Vancouver's most diverse constituencies.

Farrukh Chishtie (Green Party) The Green Party candidate for Vancouver Kingsway, Chishtie ran on a platform emphasizing climate action, affordable housing, and community investment in east Vancouver.

About the Riding

Kingsway itself is the riding's commercial spine — a six-lane arterial lined with Vietnamese pho restaurants, Chinese bakeries, South Asian grocers, auto body shops, and family-run businesses that reflect successive waves of immigration. The stretch near Victoria Drive is informally known as "Little Saigon," recognized by the City of Vancouver for its concentration of Vietnamese-Canadian businesses. Trout Lake, tucked into the riding's northeast corner in John Hendry Park, serves as a neighbourhood gathering place with a farmers' market, community centre, and swimming beach.

Kensington–Cedar Cottage, the riding's western anchor, is one of east Vancouver's most ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. Only about a third of its residents speak English as a mother tongue; Chinese languages (Mandarin and Cantonese) are spoken by a comparable share, followed by Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Punjabi. The median family income in the neighbourhood sits below the city average, and the area has experienced significant gentrification pressure as young professionals are priced out of Vancouver's west side.

Renfrew–Collingwood, covering 8.2 square kilometres in the riding's eastern portion, is one of Vancouver's fastest-growing residential areas. Its population of over 50,000 is served by SkyTrain's Millennium and Expo Lines, and the neighbourhood has seen a proliferation of new condo and rental developments along major transit corridors. The service sector, retail trade, and manufacturing are the major sources of employment. The average family income is over $72,000, and unemployment hovers around 6.5%. Housing affordability and transit access were among the most prominent local issues heading into the 2021 campaign.