Colleen Hardwick

Colleen Hardwick is a Canadian politician and film-maker in Vancouver, British Columbia, who served on Vancouver City Council from 2018 to 2022. Hardwick is the daughter of former Vancouver alderman Walter Hardwick, and granddaughter of former Vancouver park commissioner Iris Hardwick.

Early career
Hardwick worked on dozens of film and television projects through a twenty-five year career. She spent seven years free-lancing as a location and production manager before forming her first company, New City Productions, in 1991. A longtime member of the Directors Guild of Canada, she served as national secretary-treasurer from 1989 to 1992. In 1993 The Financial Post named Hardwick one of the thirteen most powerful people in the British Columbia film industry. When New City was acquired by Sextant Entertainment Group in 1999, Hardwick assumed the role of president of their motion picture division. Four years as chief executive officer of New City Entertainment group followed. For New City Productions, Hardwick won a 1997 “Forty under 40” award in entrepreneurship from Business in Vancouver.

Evolving from film production to film industry technology, Hardwick developed MovieSet Inc., a platform to monetize movies under production.

In 2010, applying technology to the information-gathering phase of urban planning, she founded PlaceSpeak, a location-based civic engagement platform designed to consult with people within specific geographic boundaries.

Political career
Hardwick announced her candidacy for Vancouver city council in the summer of 2005. She campaigned with the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) against a proposal to use assets from Vancouver's Property Endowment fund to build housing that would not yield a return on the investment, claiming her Vision Vancouver opponents “don’t even understand how market housing works.” Hardwick had the endorsement of The Vancouver Sun’s editorial board ahead of the November election. With ten councillors to be elected, she placed thirteenth.

A second run in 2018 was successful. Again running under the NPA banner, Hardwick came fifth. On a council with no party majority, she frequently questioned some of the initiatives and policies brought forth, and regularly voiced concerns about what she calls "scope-creep" where the municipal government dedicates resources to issues traditionally in the realm of other levels of government.

Hardwick was elected as a member of the NPA but resigned from that organization in April 2021 to sit as an independent councillor. Five months later, Hardwick announced her affiliation with a new civic party, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, and on March 13, 2022 was acclaimed as TEAM's mayoral candidate for the October 2022 election. Hardwick came in third in the 2022 Vancouver mayoral election with almost 10% of the vote.

While on council, Hardwick was the driving force behind the establishment of an independent auditor general for Vancouver.

Actions on housing
Hardwick opposes increases in housing supply, arguing that this leads to higher house prices. She has argued that upzonings and greater density have greatly exacerbated Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis. She has argued that increased tax revenue through boosted housing supply is akin to a Ponzi scheme.

In 2019, Hardwick voted against allowing a 5-storey apartment building (where one-fifth of the units were below market rates) in Kitsilano, arguing "why are we promoting development to the detriment of our residents?"

In 2022, she voted against a major rezoning plan for the Broadway corridor that permitted 40 storey mixed-use developments near SkyTrain stations, as well as the replacement of older, small 10-unit buildings with 15-20 storey buildings. She argued the added housing supply would lead to increased house prices. During her 2022 election campaign, she campaigned on spending $500 million toward building co-op housing and on creating neighbourhood-specific zoning plans.

In 2023, Hardwick opposed proposals to allow for denser housing developments (such as sixplexes) in Vancouver as unnecessary, noting that "Vancouver already has the possibility for more housing under existing policies," under which almost every lot in the city is already eligible to have a main house, a basement suite and a laneway house on it.

In 2022, as a city councillor during a re-zoning hearing for a 12-tower housing project by MST Development Corporation (a partnership of the Musqueam Indian Band, Squamish Nation and Tsleil-Waututh Nation) on land owned by it and Canada Lands Company (a federal crown corporation), Hardwick questioned the suitably of the height of the buildings before voting in favour of the re-zoning. Hardwick, who is not Indigenous, said of indigenous nations's housing plans, "How do you reconcile Indigenous ways of being with 18-storey high-rises?"