It’s election time! And I’m talking about the normally scheduled municipal one, not the provincial snap election that no one asked for. As has become tradition, I’m writing an election guide for my friends and family and anyone else foolish enough to trust my opinion.
How to vote
- Election Day: Vote October 17 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The City allows eligible Vancouver voters to use any Vancouver voting place.
- Advance voting: Advance voting is scheduled for October 3, 7, 10 and 13, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., at 59 voting places.
- Vote by mail: Any eligible voter may request a package. The mailing request deadline is October 5 at noon. Your completed ballot must be received by 8 p.m. on October 17—postmarking it is not enough.
The Parties
There are 7 main parties on the ballot (and a few other minor ones I won’t be covering). That might seem like a lot but is actually less than last election. I created a Council Scorecard and a quiz based on the past voting records of the elected parties. The quiz in particular is a good starting place to see who you are aligned with over the past 4 years. But there is also their future promises to consider.
A lot of the parties have similar promises. Everyone agrees we need new pools, investments in community centres, and more trees. Increases in public transit and extending the SkyTrain to UBC are popular (easy to promise when the city doesn’t pay for it). The left-wing parties (OneCity, COPE, and Greens) agree on bringing back the renters’ office, adding a bike lane on Broadway, unblocking supportive housing, and introducing a ranked mayoral ballot for future elections.
Here’s my quick summary of the main parties and some interesting promises that distinguish them.
ABC
Mayor Ken Sim’s party swept to power in 2022 winning huge majorities on council, park, and school board.
I haven’t been happy with them. Most of what they promised last election, they didn’t follow through on – like planting 100,000 trees, hiring 100 nurses, and a tax credit for car-free families. Instead we got an obsession with Bitcoin and a ballooning police budget – up 44% from $344.6 million in 2022 to $497 million in 2026! I’m not seeing any increase in safety from the extra cops.
Plus, Ken Sim’s own party doesn’t seem happy with him. Of the 19 people elected by ABC in 2022, 5 left the party before this year and another 6 decided not to run for re-election. That said, they are the incumbents and have raised huge sums of money, so sadly they are the favourites to win again.
Interesting promises:
- 0% property tax increase in 2027.
- Banning hard-drug use in public spaces and giving police more seizure powers.
- Free swimming lessons for kids and working with the VSB to offer school day lessons.
OneCity
OneCity is Vancouver’s left-wing, urbanist option, and my personal favourite party. Christine Boyle (now a provincial cabinet minister) and Lucy Maloney (running for re-election) have been two of my favourite city councillors – consistently voting to add more housing density to Vancouver and make the city easier to get around without a car.
They’ve struggled to elect more than a single councillor over the past 4 elections, but I’m hoping that 2026 is their year. The OneCity nomination race for city council this year featured 11 extremely qualified individuals and only 4 made it onto the ballot along with Lucy.
Interesting promises:
- Create a City-run “People’s Builder” to deliver 4,000 affordable homes on city-owned land.
- Make it easier to build more housing, by legalizing 25-foot lots, five-foot setbacks, single-staircase buildings, and four-storey buildings with corner stores citywide.
- Pet-friendly city, with leashed dogs on SkyTrain and SeaBus, and “bodega cats” in local shops to help with pest control.
Green
The Vancouver Greens are meant to be the environmentalists on council. They’ve been a reliable vote on clean transportation and building electrification, but not always on housing density. It’s been a problem since Adrianne Carr‘s first term on council, when she voted against almost every attempt to add density in Vancouver, even though dense, urban living is one of the most effective climate change solutions.
Pete Fry is the only mayoral contender on the left, since OneCity and COPE’s mayoral candidates dropped out and endorsed him. He served as a city councillor from 2018-2026, has a strong track record on environmental issues, and has been a consistent champion for lower speed limits throughout the city.
Interesting promises:
- Small-scale shelter villages with locking micro-cabins, storage, sanitation, and on-site supports.
- Establish a non-police, non-medical crisis-response team and an Office of Community Safety.
- Create a Vancouver Public Housing Bond to build affordable city-owned housing.
COPE
COPE is Vancouver’s original left-wing party. They promise to tax the rich and stand up for renters, and really lean into the class-warfare framing.
The party was represented by octogenarian Jean Swanson for a while, but now there’s a much younger vibe to the party, after Sean Orr won a seat in the 2025 by-election. 3/4 of their council candidates report student debt and no assets on their financial disclosure documents.
Interesting promises:
- Build a lot more affordable housing, funded by a mansion tax, a land value capture tax, a non-resident investor tax, and tripling the empty homes tax.
- A publicly funded $25 voucher residents could use to support local parties or candidates.
- Lobbying the province to make some big changes like: free transit for teens, voting rights for permanent residents, and mansion tax.
TEAM
Colleen Hardwick’s anti-development party. She finished a distant third when she ran for mayor in 2022 and for a council by-election spot in 2025, but she has a committed base and will probably get 15,000 – 20,000 votes again.
Interesting promises:
- Repeal the Official Development Plan and several major area plans.
- Reducing the density allowed with multiplexes.
- Conduct a public audit of Downtown Eastside spending, programs and outcomes.
Liberals
A new party led by Kareem Allam, Ken Sim’s former Chief of Staff. He’s managed to bring an interesting group of candidates, including a ton of former right-wing politicians (from ABC, NPA, and the BC Liberals) and a few left-wing voices with Armor Valor (who lost the OneCity nomination race).
Interesting promises:
- Introduce a tax on luxury yachts longer than 40 feet.
- Give residents on the UBC Endowment Lands a vote in Vancouver.
- Push to rename YVR to Terry Fox International Airport.
Vote Vancouver
The only former ABC politician not running with the Liberals is councillor Rebecca Bligh, who started her own party – the confusingly named Vote Vancouver. She has a pretty strong resume having been a councillor since 2018 and a past-President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
Interesting promises:
- Deliver an electric passenger ferry from downtown to Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast.
- Create a Seniors Desk at City Hall and neighbourhood hubs connecting residents with services closer to home.
- Convert underused downtown parking spaces into free seasonal bike valets.
My Voting Recommendations
The Simple Version
Put a check whenever you see Pete Fry, OneCity, or COPE.
- ✔ Pete Fry
- ✔ OneCity ✔ COPE
The Detailed Version
Here are my voting recommendations in ballot order (with more details below):
| Mayor | |
|---|---|
| 51. FRY, Pete | Green |
| City Council | |
| 100. HAGGLUND, Jarrett | OneCity |
| 111. ORR, Sean | COPE |
| 113. BONAMIS, Iona 陶思穎 | OneCity |
| 119. DUMONT, Camil | Green |
| 121. SINGH, Devyani | COPE |
| 124. LESLIE, Chloe | COPE |
| 131. MALONEY, Lucy | OneCity |
| 146. BULA, Frances | OneCity |
| 149. STOCKWELL, Caitlin | OneCity |
| 155. YI-KIERAN, Solomon | COPE |
| Park Board | |
| 203. WYSS, T’uy’t’tanat Cease | COPE |
| 205. HAN, Jamie | COPE |
| 214. PETERSEN, Tyler | OneCity |
| 215. BURTON, Sacia | COPE |
| 217. IRWIN, John | OneCity |
| 222. DIGBY, Tom | Green |
| 230. DENOFRIO, Dominic | OneCity |
| School Board | |
| 301. SIGURDSON, Krista | OneCity |
| 302. BROWN, Rory | OneCity |
| 304. MAH, Suzie | COPE |
| 312. CHENG, Melanie | COPE |
| 321. BRESHEARS, Sherry | OneCity |
| 323. O’KEEFE, Derrick | COPE |
| 324. GIESBRECHT, Gwen | COPE |
| 325. LEE, Christopher 李基鵬 | OneCity |
| 328. CARDWELL, Steve | OneCity |
Mayor
Pete Fry is the obvious choice for anyone left-leaning. I’ll admit he wasn’t my first choice (I would have preferred to see William Azaroff from OneCity or even Stephanie Allen from COPE), but Pete is a consensus builder and cares about good governance. My main hesitation is he doesn’t seem to have a bold vision for the city and he has a track record of caving to NIMBY voices instead of approving density that would make the city greener and more affordable.
I did briefly look at Rebecca Bligh and Kareem Allam, but I haven’t seen anything interesting enough from either to make me forget they both supported Ken Sim a few years ago.
Council
Beating Ken Sim for mayor will be important this election, but winning a progressive majority on council is even more important. I think the 10 councillors I picked have the best chance of winning and really turning things around in Vancouver.
My list is pretty close to what the VDLC (organized labour) endorsed, but I decided to pick Camil Dumont as my Green party council rep. He was an excellent park board rep from 2018-2022 and is probably the most pro-housing voice from the Greens.
As I’ve said before, the OneCity candidates are particularly strong and have impressive resumes. If anyone is going to improve housing and transportation in the city, this is the group I would trust. Iona Bonamis (transportation planner), Frances Bula (Vancouver’s best journalist and housing expert), Lucy Maloney (safe streets advocate), and Caitlin Stockwell (environmental lawyer), and Jarrett Hagglund (director at Co-operative Housing Federation) – these are serious and smart folks.
The COPE candidates bring some youthful activism and fresh ideas. Not all of their ideas are realistic or within the power of the municipal government to achieve, but you know they’ll fight hard. Solomon Yi-Kieran in particular stands out for his work advocating for SkyTrain to UBC.
Why only one Green? My favourite Green candidate from 2022 is running for COPE this election – climate scientist Devyani Singh. I considered fellow vegan Bridget Burns, who I got a chance to chat with at a local election event – I liked her but not enough to bump someone else out of the top 10. Annette Reilly didn’t impress me in the by-election last year and still doesn’t. And Stephanie Smith I would consider worse than most of the ABC candidates for reasons.
School Board
I feel really good about the 9 candidates running for OneCity and COPE. Seriously, check out their bios; they’re all extremely impressive. The last 4 years have been a bit of a train wreck at the VSB, with a lot of secret meetings and a lack of transparency for parents and students. Two candidates for school board, Christopher Lee (OneCity) and Melanie Cheng (COPE) really led the fight to change that and I hope they both make it onto school board.
Park Board
I’m less certain about my votes here. Tom Digby (Green) has done a good job over the past 4 years, and John Irwin was a solid park board rep back in the Vision days. I’ve heard good things about Sacia Burton, T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, and Tyler Petersen, but I’m honestly mostly voting by party here.
I know it’s not a popular opinion, especially on the left, but I’d be in favor of abolishing the park board.
Other Guides
- Allen Pike’s more detailed (and less partisan) election guide
- Russil Wvong’s guide with a housing lens
If you want a fun look back at history, you can see who I recommended voting for in 2014, 2018, and 2022.
