Vancouver-Mount Pleasant

Vancouver-Mount Pleasant is one of British Columbia's most progressive urban ridings, covering a diverse swathe of east Vancouver that includes the Main Street corridor, parts of the Downtown Eastside, and the arts-oriented neighbourhoods around the intersection of Main and Broadway. The seat had been held by NDP MLA Jenny Kwan from 1996 until she left provincial politics, and in a February 2016 by-election, Melanie Mark won the seat for the NDP, making history as the first First Nations woman elected to the BC Legislature. Heading into the 2017 general election, Mark was the incumbent in one of the safest NDP ridings in the province.

Candidates

Melanie Mark (BC NDP) — Mark is of Nisga'a, Gitxsan, Cree, and Ojibway heritage and was born and raised in East Vancouver. Before entering politics, she spent eight years at the Office of the Representative for Children and Youth, advocating for vulnerable young people in government care. Her 2016 by-election victory was a landmark in BC political history.

Jerry Kroll (BC Green Party) — Kroll was the president and CEO of ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp., a Vancouver-based company developing single-passenger electric commuter vehicles. He was an entrepreneur with a background in the electric vehicle industry and was nominated as the Green candidate in January 2017.

Conny Lin (BC Liberal Party) — Lin held a bachelor's degree in genetics, a master's in behavioural neuroscience, and was completing a doctorate in neuroscience at UBC. She had served as the Graduate Student Society president at UBC and worked as a Science Policy Fellow with the BC Ministry of Health, focusing on opioid policy.

Other candidates included Mike Hansen (Independent), Peter Marcus (Communist Party of BC), and Shai Joseph Mor (Your Political Party of BC).

Local Issues

The opioid overdose crisis cast a long shadow over Vancouver-Mount Pleasant during the 2013–2017 term. The riding encompasses parts of the Downtown Eastside, ground zero for the fentanyl epidemic that prompted the provincial government to declare a public health emergency in April 2016. Overdose deaths had escalated to unprecedented levels, with 120 deaths recorded in March 2017 alone province-wide. Residents and advocates questioned whether the BC Liberal government's response was adequate given the scale of the crisis.

Gentrification and housing affordability were equally urgent concerns. The Mount Pleasant neighbourhood had undergone a dramatic transformation, evolving from a working-class area with industrial warehouses into a hub for tech companies, trendy cafes, and boutiques. Rising rents were displacing low-income tenants, artists, and the small businesses that had long defined the area's character. The loss of affordable single-room-occupancy hotels in the adjacent Downtown Eastside compounded the displacement.

Mark had championed issues related to Indigenous children in government care, the legacy of residential schools, and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. These concerns intersected with broader questions about poverty, mental health services, and the adequacy of provincial supports for the riding's most vulnerable residents.