Housing, traffic congestion top of mind for candidates running in Tri-Cities

The mayoral race in Metro Vancouver’s Tri-Cities area includes some fresh faces.

One of Metro’s fastest-growing areas, the Tri-Cities is an informal grouping of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. As the population soars, these cities face common challenges related to housing, traffic congestion and crime that candidates for mayor are campaigning to fix.

It’s a three-way battle in Coquitlam to replace retiring mayor Richard Stewart, a stalwart who has served in the role for nearly two decades, while Port Moody’s first female mayor, Meghan Lahti, is being challenged by one-term city councillor Haven Lurbiecki.

There’s also a trio of candidates vying for the city’s top job in PoCo. Brad West, who went unchallenged in the last election, will this time face two challengers: Connor Fesenmaier and Pasquale Zampieri. Both are local businessmen in the automotive industry.

Coquitlam is going to be the one to watch, said Ian Bushfield, a local political commenter for the podcasts PolitiCoast and Cambie Report.

“Stewart never really faced much competition during his time,” he said, so now voters will be choosing between two city councillors and a former civil servant.

Voters will choose between Craig Hodge, a city councillor since 2011, public sector strategist Madhavee Inamdar, and two-time councillor Trish Mandewo.

Bushfield said it will likely be a race between Hodge and Mandewo, who are longtime colleagues of Stewart.

Stewart publicly endorsed Hodge for mayor when Hodge announced his candidacy, while also saying Mandewo “has demonstrated tremendous leadership and vision, great empathy and compassion.”

With experience as a civic servant, Inamdar pledges to demand below-market rental housing from developers, to reduce traffic bottlenecks and preserve green spaces. She also says there needs to be more budget transparency at city hall to ensure tax dollars are funding community services.

Mandewo, who is a former Union of B.C. Municipalities president, said her priorities are growth without raising taxes, updating infrastructure, green spaces and safer neighbourhoods.

Hodge was first elected to city council in 2011. He’s pushing for a crackdown on crime, as gang shootings have increased in the fast-growing city. He supports more RCMP foot patrols and would like dedicated resources to address gangs.

Over in Port Moody — where the province has set housing targets — highrise development and traffic congestion have long been hot-button topics.

Lahti won the mayor’s seat in 2022 and is running on continued densification around transit and an open, team-building approach to city hall. This campaign, she’s pledging to continue work to ease traffic congestion and build more seniors housing. Part of this plan includes widening the Barnet overpass and increasing lane capacity, and adding a rush-hour lane to St. Johns Street.