Visions of Vancouver (w/ Justin McElroy)

18 snips

Sep 26, 2025

Justin McElroy, a municipal affairs reporter for CBC Vancouver, dives into the quirky complexities of Vancouver's political landscape. He discusses how the city, while stunning, faces glaring issues such as wealth disparity and a housing crisis often overlooked in national discourse. McElroy highlights Vancouver as a trendsetter for other cities and elaborates on the evolution of its political scene, from the NPA's dominance to the rise of left-wing challengers. Expect insights on recent mayoral races, governance challenges, and the uncertainty leading into upcoming elections.

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INSIGHT

Vancouver's Complicated Public Image

Vancouver is both spectacularly wealthy and visibly poor, creating complex local tensions.
Jordan Cornish argues Vancouver is often misunderstood and under-discussed nationally despite outsized influence.

ANECDOTE

Old Friends Reunite In Newfoundland

Justin McElroy and Jordan Cornish are old friends who worked together at UBC student newspaper.
Cornish coerced McElroy into this interview while they attended a wedding in St. John's.

INSIGHT

Making Local Politics Compelling

Justin McElroy built a public profile by making local politics engaging and accessible.
He used daily pandemic charts and playful rankings to draw broad attention to municipal issues.

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Vancouver is a funny place.

It’s without a doubt the most beautiful city in the country, probably also the continent and maybe even the world — at least when the sun’s shining. The rainy season, which lasts around eight months of the year, can turn it into a dreary, inescapable limbo.

It’s a place filled luxury car dealerships, high-end watch stores and other markers of flamboyant wealth. But also absolutely heart-wrenching displays of visible poverty.

Vancouverites are simultaneously proud of their city, and often deeply insecure about how it compares to other metropolises.

It’s also, I’d argue, deeply misunderstood by the rest of the country.

Strangely enough, Vancouver, and British Columbia more broadly, are left out of the national conversation, despite its population, economic importance and unique political culture.

There’s this conversation I always have with my journalism friends from BC about how whatever’s happening in Vancouver eventually ends up becoming the rest of the country’s problem. You’ve seen that over and over again, whether it’s about the housing crisis or debates around drug use or crime.

And so I figured, why not just bring one of those friends on to have that discussion right here on The Hatchet.

Last week I was at a wedding in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where I was able to corner my old friend and CBC Vancouver’s municipal reporter Justin McElroy, and bully him into being on the show.

For the British Columbians in the audience, Justin really needs no introduction. He is by almost any measure one of the best-known journalists in the province. And he’s gained this enormous cult following, not just through his reporting or his penchant for ranking things, but because he has an almost uncanny ability to make people care about the things that he cares about.

And in addition to being one of my oldest friends, Justin is also the man who taught me how to be a journalist more than fifteen years ago.

In this conversation, we talk a little bit about Justin’s erstwhile fame, and then give listeners a full political education in all things Vancouver and why the rest of the country should be paying for attention.

And after that, for our paid supporters, we have a little something extra. Justin and I do some reminiscing about the good old days, when we worked together at The Ubyssey, UBC’s student newspaper. So if you want to hear about how I forced Justin to resign as editor of the newspaper, whether or not I was a decent roommate or the time we were in an honest-to-god zombie apocalypse, make sure to become a paid supporter today.

Featured in this episode: Justin McElroy

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