Vancouver Centre

This is Vancouver's downtown business core, north of 16th Avenue West, Marpole Avenue, Wolfe Avenue and 16th Avenue, and between Cambie Street, Dunsmuir Street, Main Street, 2nd Avenue East and Ontario Street in the east, and Arbutus Street in the west. It includes much of English Bay and False Creek.

The 2006 census found that more than 34 per cent of the riding's residents are immigrants. Sixty-three per cent listed English as their mother tongue and three per cent listed French. Chinese – listed by nine per cent of the population – heads the list of non-official languages.

Ten per cent of residents are over age 65. Renters outnumber homeowners nearly three to one – 66 to 34 per cent. Almost 47 per cent of people over age 25 have a university certificate or degree, one of the highest percentages in Canada.

Vancouver Centre serves as the headquarters for many of B.C.'s largest companies and government-service providers. The professional, scientific and technical service sector is the single biggest source of jobs. The average family income is $88,204 and the unemployment rate is 5.1 per cent.

The riding was established in 1914. In 2004, it retained three-quarters of its residents and added about 6,000 from Vancouver East.

Population: 123,701 (2006 census; an increase of 16.7% since 2001)

Political History

Liberal incumbent Hedy Fry retained her seat easily in 2006, frustrating former Burnaby-Douglas MP Svend Robinson's attempt to return to politics.

Fry also won re-election in 2004, defeating New Democrat Kennedy Stewart by 4,230 votes.

This was Liberal territory in the 1960s and '70s, when it was held by Ron Basford and Art Phillips. It turned Tory in 1980 with the election of Pat Carney, who served in Brian Mulroney's cabinet.

In 1988, Vancouver Centre voters elected Tory Kim Campbell. Campbell was Canada's first female justice minister and defence minister. After Mulroney resigned, she became the country's first female prime minister in June 1993. By November, she and her party were out of office. Campbell lost in her riding to Fry.

Fry's main opponents in 1997 and 2000 were Reform/Canadian Alliance challengers. Both times, she won by about 9,300 votes.

• 1917-26 inclusive - CON
• 1930-45 inclusive - LIB
• 1948 byelection - CCF
• 1949, 1953 - LIB
• 1957, 1958 - PC
• 1962-79 inclusive - LIB
• 1980, 1984, 1988 - PC
• 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006 - LIB