Margareta Dovgal or Terry Yung: who should Vancouver-Yaletown trust with downtown safety?

In March 2025, six men who run the nightclubs on and around Vancouver’s Granville Street went to Global News with a warning. Open drug use, street disorder and violence had followed the province into the strip, they said, and hospitality traffic was down by about 60 per cent. With the FIFA World Cup on the way, they called it the worst the street had been in three decades. “Never seen it this bad,” said Dave Kershaw, the owner of Cabana Lounge.¹²

Granville Street runs through Vancouver-Yaletown, the riding that takes in downtown Vancouver east of Burrard Street.³ Margareta Dovgal, the Conservative candidate here, was born downtown and still lives there. Her campaign puts the street’s problem first: “Public safety is the first job of government.”⁴⁵ The riding’s MLA, Terry Yung of the BC NDP, is running again.⁶

01 Where they stand: Margareta Dovgal and Terry Yung on safety, housing and your money, in their own words.

Both candidates have put their priorities in writing. Here they are side by side, in their own words or their party’s, before we say where we come down.

Margareta DovgalConservative

Terry YungBC NDP · incumbent

Public safety

“Public safety is the first job of government. Parents shouldn’t have to worry about needles in playgrounds or dog parks.”⁵

“As a former VPD officer who walked the beat in the DTES, I know that public safety requires more than policing.” He announced stable funding for the Ashtrey Recovery Resource Centre and a new daytime support centre in the Downtown Eastside.⁷

Housing

“Every family in Yaletown should be able to afford a place to call home.”⁵

His party’s pledge: “Bringing housing costs down – not giving control back to speculators.” As board chair of SUCCESS, he helped grow its affordable housing to more than 1,000 units.⁸⁹

Your money

“A government that respects every dollar you earn.”⁵

His party’s pledge: “Lowering everyday costs – Not giving the rich tax breaks.”⁸

Background

Economic commentator and policy analyst; mental-health advocacy with the BC Schizophrenia Society; Rotary Club of Vancouver Waterfront.⁴

Thirty years with the Vancouver Police Department, to inspector; B.C.’s Medal of Good Citizenship and the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers.⁹

02 Margareta Dovgal was born downtown, grew up below the poverty line, and says public safety is the first job of government.

Margareta Dovgal is the Conservative Party of BC candidate in Vancouver-Yaletown.⁶ She has never held office, so her record is what she has done and what she has said, on the record and under her own name.

Margareta Dovgal

Conservative Party of BC candidate, Vancouver-Yaletown

Home

Born and lives in downtown Vancouver

Growing up

Below the poverty line; lost both parents in her teens

Work

Economic commentator and policy analyst, with national columns and broadcast commentary

In Ottawa

Witness to the House of Commons immigration committee, November 2025

Community

BC Schizophrenia Society; Rotary Club of Vancouver Waterfront

Portrait: Conservative Party of BC

Her campaign describes a woman who built a career in economic development advocacy after losing both parents as a teenager. She did mental-health advocacy with the BC Schizophrenia Society and serves with the Rotary Club of Vancouver Waterfront. She co-founded and ran the Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase, which brought investors and communities together around economic reconciliation. She holds a BA from UBC and a Master of Public Administration from University College London.⁴

Her first priority is the one Granville Street has been asking for:⁵

Her other three priorities are on the same page: “Every family in Yaletown should be able to afford a place to call home”; a government that “respects every dollar you earn”; and accountability “so the services you pay for deliver.”⁵ Her campaign site lists her published pieces, among them one in the Vancouver Sun on the 2026 provincial budget and one in the National Post on this campaign.⁵

When the House of Commons immigration committee called her as a witness in November 2025, she opened with a principle most voters would sign: the system “must be ethical and fair to those seeking to come to Canada for a better life, whether for a short stay or for the rest of their lives.”¹⁰

And she answers questions. When she attacked the Premier this month over his family’s place in a $10-a-day child-care centre, CBC News asked her whether a Conservative government would cut the program. She answered on the record: “I’m not aware of us having any plans to make cuts to $10-a-day.”¹¹

03 Eight months after Terry Yung said help was on its way, Granville Street’s own business owners said the strip was “in full crisis.”

Terry Yung is a 30-year Vancouver police veteran whom Premier David Eby named Minister of State for Community Safety and Integrated Services in November 2024.⁹ When the club owners spoke out in March 2025, Yung told Global News he would meet them. The province, he said, was “investing $5 million on a new pilot program for community safety” aimed at the disorder on Granville Street, “so help is on its way.”²

Terry Yung

BC NDP MLA for Vancouver-Yaletown since 2024, running again

In cabinet

Minister of State for Community Safety and Integrated Services since November 2024

Before

Vancouver Police Department, rising from patrol to inspector

His job

Safety in downtown core commercial areas, by his mandate letter

On his posts

Replies restricted on every one of his 50 posts since 1 June

Portrait: BC NDP

Yung’s mandate letter, signed by the Premier in January 2025, gave him this job in plain words. He was to work with police, business associations, downtown resident associations and public safety advocates “to strengthen safety in the province’s downtown core commercial areas,” including “major urban centres that have faced public safety challenges.”¹² The busiest downtown core in the province is in his own riding.

By December 2025 the people on the street had their answer. The Hospitality Vancouver Association asked the province to close three single-room-occupancy hotels on the strip at once and to move nearly 300 residents. It counted 4,000 police responses to one of them, the former Howard Johnson hotel now called the Luugat, since 2020. Kershaw put it in four words.¹³

Ken Sim, the mayor of Vancouver, said the city was “again calling on the Province to step in, close these unsafe buildings immediately.” Downtown Van, the downtown business association, said Granville Street was “at a tipping point.”¹³ The province had already committed to close the Luugat by the end of June 2026.

It did not go cleanly. In August 2026 Global News reported that the province had spent $101,000 in July to keep the 110-room building open for one remaining tenant. Christine Boyle, the housing minister, said: “The situation at the Luugat has not been ideal for a long time.” Jane Talbot, the president of Downtown Van, said of the province’s communication: “To not provide clear information, it’s unacceptable.”¹⁴

In our view, this is the record that matters in Yaletown. The minister responsible for downtown safety told the strip in his own riding that help was coming. Eight months later the people who work there said it was in crisis, and the mayor was still asking his government to act.

04 His party says Terry Yung made sure Yaletown’s voices were heard. He has not let the public reply to a single post since June.

The BC NDP’s page for its candidate makes the pitch. It says Yung “worked closely with residents, businesses and organizations across Vancouver-Yaletown to make sure their voices were heard.”⁸ His mandate letter says British Columbians “expect us to listen and learn from people of different perspectives.”¹²

His own accounts say otherwise. On every one of the 16 campaign posts he published on X and Instagram after the election was called, the public was shut out. On Instagram, comments were turned off on all 11. On X, all 5 carried the platform’s notice “Only some accounts can reply,” which here meant only the accounts he tagged. Going back to 1 June, the count is 31 of 31 posts on Instagram and 19 of 19 on X.⁷

Terry Yung@terryyungyvr on X

Today, I joined Amanda Burrows to announce plans for stable funding for the Ashtrey Recovery Resource Centre and a new daytime support centre in the Downtown Eastside. As a former VPD officer who walked the beat in the DTES, I know that public safety requires more than policing.

13 October 2026, 11:35 a.m. · open the post

Only some accounts can reply. The notice X shows under the post.

A post on public safety from the minister for public safety, with the reply box closed. Read 17 October 2026.⁷

We looked at every sitting BC NDP MLA’s campaign accounts and rated them on four measures. Yung passed two: he posted during the campaign, and he wrote his posts himself. He failed the two that matter most to a voter. Replies were limited on all of his posts, and we found no answer from him to anyone. That earns him an F.¹⁵ He is one of many in his party who do this, as we set out in our account of how the BC NDP shut voters out of its candidates’ posts.⁷

In our view, a minister who promised a crisis-hit street that help was coming should be the first to hear from it when the help does not arrive. Yung has arranged things so that he hears from no one.

05 On downtown safety, on listening and on answering, Terry Yung and Margareta Dovgal point in opposite directions.

In our view, Yaletown has given the NDP’s approach two years, with a former police inspector in the cabinet chair for downtown safety. Eight months in, the street’s own business owners called it a crisis, and the minister has since stopped taking replies. Dovgal has no ministry to defend. She lives downtown, she says safety comes first, and she answers the question when she is asked it.

06 Vancouver-Yaletown is a toss-up, and in 2024 about 581 voters would have changed it.

338Canada, which turns the published polls into a projection for every riding, rates Vancouver-Yaletown a toss-up. Its update of 16 October puts the BC NDP and the Conservatives level at 44% each, with a margin of eight points either way.¹⁶

Vancouver-Yaletown, projected vote

338Canada, update of 16 October 2026. Bars show the projection; the thin lines show its margin either way.¹⁶

Terry Yung, BC NDP

44%

Margareta Dovgal, Conservative

44%

BC Greens

9%

CentreBC

3%

0%30%60%

Priyan Samarakoone, the BC Green candidate, is projected at 9%, and Sam Chandola of CentreBC at 3%.¹⁶⁶ Only Dovgal is within reach of Yung.

The last result shows how little it takes. In 2024 Yung won with 9,018 votes, or 49.76%, against 7,857, or 43.35%, for the Conservative candidate, Melissa De Genova. That is a gap of 1,161 votes. If 581 of his voters had chosen the Conservative instead, the seat would have changed hands.³

In our view, Margareta Dovgal is the better choice for Yaletown, and the projection puts her within reach.

07 Granville Street was told help was on its way. On 24 October, Yaletown can send someone who will answer.

Elections BC’s advance voting runs from 16 to 21 October, and Final Voting Day is 24 October.¹⁷

In March 2025 the people who run Granville Street’s clubs said they had never seen it this bad, and their minister told them help was on its way.¹² Nineteen months later the reply box under his posts is closed. In our view, the strip and the riding around it deserve an MLA who will hear them out.

Help was on its way. In our view, Yaletown should send Margareta Dovgal to make sure it arrives.