Dunbar-Southlands

Dunbar-Southlands is an affluent west-side neighbourhood of roughly 21,000 people, bordered by Pacific Spirit Regional Park to the west, 16th Avenue to the north, and the Fraser River to the south. It is one of Vancouver's most family-oriented areas: about 51 percent of households include children, the highest rate in the city, and roughly 25 percent of residents are under 19. The housing stock consists almost entirely of single-family detached homes on large lots, with the Southlands sub-area in the south featuring estate-sized properties and horse paddocks — North America's only designated urban equestrian community, formally protected since 1988 under the Southlands Plan. Homeownership is the highest in Vancouver at 78 percent of households. Median household income exceeds $104,000, and roughly 19 percent of households earn above $300,000. The neighbourhood has become significantly more diverse since the 1990s, with Mandarin now the second-most-common mother tongue at 16 percent and Cantonese at 7 percent, reflecting waves of affluent Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese immigration. The Musqueam First Nation reserve occupies the southern portion of the neighbourhood near the mouth of the Fraser River.

Dunbar-Southlands is reliably centre-right at all three levels of government. Provincially, it falls within Vancouver-Quilchena, which has never elected an NDP MLA — BC Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson won it with 56 percent in 2020, and following BC United's collapse, BC Conservative Dallas Brodie took it with 51.6 percent in 2024. Federally, it sits in Vancouver Quadra, held by the Liberals continuously since 1984. Municipally, Ken Sim won 64.4 percent — 4,894 of 7,598 valid ballots — but the more striking result was Stewart's third-place finish. Colleen Hardwick's TEAM took 16.2 percent, ahead of the incumbent mayor's 15.3 percent, making Dunbar-Southlands one of the few neighbourhoods where the anti-densification vote outpolled the centre-left incumbent. The combined Sim-plus-Hardwick vote exceeded 80 percent. The Musqueam Community Centre poll was a notable outlier: with just 247 ballots, Sim won 46.6 percent and Stewart took 29.6 percent, reflecting the distinct political character of the reserve community.

Municipal Issues

Resistance to densification was the signature local issue. While the Broadway Plan did not directly affect Dunbar-Southlands, the broader Vancouver Plan — which proposed city-wide densification including multiplex and missing-middle housing in low-density single-family zones — generated significant opposition from residents protective of the neighbourhood's large-lot character. The Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods, which included Dunbar-area community groups alongside Arbutus Ridge and Shaughnessy associations, opposed the plan as rushed and lacking adequate provision for schools, parks, and infrastructure. TEAM's platform of repealing both the Broadway Plan and the Vancouver Plan resonated strongly here, explaining Hardwick's 16.2 percent — well above her city-wide 10 percent — and her second-place finish ahead of Stewart.

Public safety was the dominant city-wide campaign theme, and Dunbar-Southlands was no exception despite being geographically removed from the Downtown Eastside. ABC's promise of 100 additional police officers and 100 mental health nurses aligned with the anxieties amplified by the documentary Vancouver Is Dying, released ten days before the election. The Vancouver Police Union's unprecedented endorsement of Sim reinforced the public safety message across the city. In Dunbar, concerns about property crime and the perception of deteriorating public order intersected with the densification debate — many residents associated increased density with increased social problems, a connection that TEAM's messaging encouraged.

The Dunbar Village commercial strip along Dunbar Street, anchored by institutions like the historic Dunbar Theatre (operating since 1935), was a source of neighbourhood identity that residents sought to protect from redevelopment pressure. Proposals for extending the SkyTrain from Arbutus station to UBC — which would pass through or near Dunbar-Southlands — raised questions about transit-oriented densification along the route; Hardwick explicitly promised to put the UBC extension on hold. The roughly 874-hectare Pacific Spirit Regional Park on the neighbourhood's western edge was a valued amenity, and environmental stewardship of the park remained a consistent local priority.