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#VanPoli | Change is on The Near Horizon | Hope

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Council: Unofficial 2026 Vancouver Election Results

Mayor (one to be elected)

  • FRY, Pete – GREEN: 98,494

At the end of the day, the 2026 Vancouver municipal election came down to a two-way race between two-term Green City Councillor Pete Fry, and ABC Vancouver Mayoral incumbent, Ken Sim. The other three high-profile Mayoral contenders then became collateral damage in the pitched battle as to who would sit in the Mayor’s office, and chair Council meetings — beginning in the afternoon after the Inauguration of the new Council — on Monday, November 2nd through the 2030 municipal election, on as an yet undecided date.


Peter Armstrong, NPA / ABC Vancouver President, owner of the Rocky Mountaineer

On Election Day 2014, VanRamblings spent day the with Peter Armstrong (Peter is a friend, whom we love with our whole soul, body and entire heart) — the then President of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), and the owner of the Rocky Mountaineer — at NPA Election Day headquarters, in the ballroom at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.

At 11am, Peter got a call from Dimitri Pantazopoulos — the longtime Stephen Harper pollster, pollster for ABC Vancouver, and current Deputy Manager of the Conservative Party of B.C. election campaign — who told Peter that NPA Mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe was running 15 points ahead of Gregor Robertson, according to their Friday night polling.

At 4pm, Peter got another call from Dimitri — explaining that Kirk was now running 15 points behind Gregor Robertson, the extensive exit polling showing that voters believed both Gregor Robertson and Kirk LaPointe stood for pretty much the same thing, and voters were making the decision to cast their ballot for Gregor over Kirk, “the devil they knew, over the devil they didn’t know.”

That is pretty much the same story in 2026.

Where Vancouver Liberals internal polling showed that their Mayoral candidate, Kareem Allam, was pretty much taking over Ken Sim’s vote on Vancouver’s west side — Point Grey, Dunbar, Kerrisdale and Shaughnessy, that had Allam polling at 22%, and in a statistical dead heat with Ken Sim — on Election Day, Saturday, October 17th, Allam’s vote collapsed and returned to Ken Sim, so fearful were right-of-centre voters about the potential for a “progressive Mayor”,  in the form of Pete Fry. Both TEAM’s Colleen Hardwick and Vote Vancouver’s Rebecca Bligh suffered from a similar fate at the polls on Election Day.

Councillors (10 to be elected)

1. ORR, Sean – COPE: 83,038
2. REILLY, Annette – GREEN: 78,476
3. LESLIE, Chloe – COPE: 67,791
4. SINGH, Devyani – COPE: 65,473
5. SMITH, Stephanie – GREEN: 64,070
6. MALONEY, Lucy – OneCity: 63,143
7. DUMONT, Camil – GREEN: 62,540
8. YI-KIERAN, Solomon – COPE: 60,361
9. KLASSEN, Mike – ABC Vancouver: 57,798
10. BURNS, Bridget – GREEN: 57,788

As we have previously written, in many ways the 2026 election reminds us very much of the 2002 Vancouver municipal election.

In 2002, incumbent Non-Partisan Association (NPA) City Councillor Jennifer Clarke staged a right wing coup to unseat popular NPA Mayor Philip Owen as Mayor of the City of Vancouver, arising from her unhappiness with Mayor Owen’s implementation of his innovative and humane Four Pillars Drug Policy, which constituted a novel strategy pioneered in Switzerland representing a tectonic shift from treating substance use as a criminal justice issue towards a public health approach. The approach placed an equal focus on harm reduction, prevention, treatment, and enforcement.

Jennifer Clarke’s bid to unseat the NPA’s popular, grassroots Mayor was successful, and in 2002 Jennifer Clarke presented herself to the Vancouver voting public as the standard bearer for the Non-Partisan Association (NPA). Pundits, politicos and the media felt quite assured that Ms. Clarke would sail to victory, for a 5th consecutive term to form a majority NPA Council. Some of us weren’t quite so sure.

In 2002, Vancouver City Council had only two elected COPE members on Council: Fred Bass and Tim Louis. The members and electeds of the Non-Partisan Association were confident that they would once again sweep Council, Park Board and School Board, as they had for the previous 12 years, and for much of the 20th century.

Of course, as happens so often, all of this political calculation failed to account for how the general public viewed Ms. Clarke’s unseemly unseating of the city’s favourite Mayor.

When the 2002 Vancouver municipal election rolled around, COPE swept Council (8 of 10 seats), swept Park Board (5 of 7 seats), and swept all the open positions around the Board of Education table (taking 7 of 9 seats), with the Greens’ Andrea Reimer holding down the 9th spot, with the Vancouver School Board.

So, for VanRamblings, the sweep of all three civic bodies by COPE and the Greens (with OneCity doing well on School Board, and re-electing OneCity’s Lucy Maloney for Council) in 2026 came as no particular surprise. Clearly, the voters of Vancouver were anxious to rid themselves of the stain of the mean-spirited civic administration of Mayor Ken Sim, and his lickspittle contingent of ABC Vancouver City Councillors.

Perhaps the most hopeful interaction VanRamblings had on Saturday evening — apart from all the hugs we received from good-hearted folks at the Vancouver Liberals Saturday night event, and at COPE’s Victory Party at the Japanese School on Alexander Street — occurred as we were nearing the entrance of the COPE party, when we ran across COPE fundraiser Gabe Goodman — flat out, one of our favourite people in the world! — who greeted us, and said …

“Thank you for taking the time to attend COPE’s Victory Party tonight, and spend time with the hundreds of good folks and staunch supporters of COPE, who you’ll see inside. Along with almost everyone else I know, I am an inveterate reader of VanRamblings, and I want to assure you, Raymond, that a key component of how the newly-elected and the re-elected members of COPE will bring themselves to their work is with kindness as a core value. I know you’ve written about the necessity of kindness in civic life. COPE has taken that notion to heart, as a core strength of our party.”

And, finally, a note to Shawn Vulliez, COPE’s very able, genius campaign manager.

Shawn Vulliez, left, COPE’s campaign manager, and Sean Orr, topping the polls for Council

Shawn: We recommend you turn your attention — working / consulting with Mayor-elect Pete Fry — to staffing the Selection Committee of Council, whose three members will choose among the thousands of applications that will be made to fill the 300+ positions that will soon be posted and made available to the public, whose members will sit on the very important Advisory Boards to Council. Might we suggest that COPE’s Devyani Singh (or Sean Orr, who might be too busy!) and Solomon Yi-Kieran sit as members of the Selection Committee, along with the Greens’ Stephanie Smith. Whatever decision you and Mayor-elect Fry arrive at will be the right decision. The Selection Committee — of which Mayor-elect Fry has been a member for the past four years — is critical to the new Council putting into place Advisory Board members who best reflect the values and civic goals of the citizens of Vancouver, and our newly-elected Vancouver City Council.

Might we suggest, as well, that you give some consideration to encouraging COPE supporter and longtime community activist Ian Marcuse — whose work on the Grandview Woodland Food Connection has supported low-income and vulnerable residents in East Vancouver — as well as the Seniors Community Kitchen, where accessible cooking and social spaces designed to support older adults in the neighbourhood has existed to support vulnerable members of our seniors population.

Now, we know that Ian would be a perfect candidate for the Vancouver Food Policy Council (VFPC) Advisory Committee, but we’d sure like to see Ian sit as a member of the Board of Variance — often referred to as the most powerful creature of civic government — where we first met Mr. Marcuse 20+ years ago, when we were sitting as a member on the COPE-dominated Board of Variance.

And don’t forget social activist and artist Irwin Oostindie, who founded the Under the Volcano Festival of Art & Social Change, and worked as the Planning Director of the Wild Bird Trust of BC in North Vancouver, which focused on decolonizing conservation, restoration and research based at Maplewood Flats, on the unceded sel̓íl̓witulh/Tsleil-Waututh lands and waters — among myriad other projects with which Irwin has been involved.

We think Irwin would make for an outstanding member of Vancouver’s City Planning Commission, a Council-appointed citizens’ advisory body that counsels Vancouver City Council on matters including housing, the public realm, neighbourhoods, transportation, and public engagement. Just sayin’ … a little food for thought.

As for us, we’re giving some consideration to making application to Vancouver’s Older Persons and Elders Advisory Committee (OPEAC) when the posting is made — cuz, you know, we’re kind of getting older now — which committee advises Vancouver City Council and staff on improving access, inclusion, and services for aging residents.

#VanPoli | COPE Candidate for Mayor, Stephanie Allen, Withdraws from Race to Become City’s Next Mayor

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Full text of COPE’s candidate for Mayor Stephanie Allen’s speech to a press conference delivered Sept. 2nd in Helen Gutteridge Plaza at Vancouver City Hall.

Good morning,

I offer my acknowledgement of the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, to their peoples who have stewarded these lands for 1000s of years. I offer my commitment to working in good relations towards our collective liberation from colonial systems.

Today, I am here together with my colleagues and loved ones to announce that, for the good of all people living in Vancouver, we have decided as a team to withdraw my candidacy for Mayor of Vancouver.

In May, our membership nominated me as part of a slate to win the City — to evict Ken Sim and ABC and achieve a COPE-led democratic socialist municipal government.

For now, we have not been able to achieve all of our goals.

But this movement isn’t about me or about COPE.

It’s about the people of Vancouver.

And the people need us to defeat this right-wing government and reduce the harm being done by the sociopathic system we’re up against.

So while I am announcing the end of my campaign for Mayor, I am also here today to recommit to our common fight for Vancouver.

Ken Sim and ABC must be evicted on October 17th.

That’s why I am strongly encouraging the other mMayoral candidates in the race to also do the right thing, show integrity, and narrow the Mayoral field to the person best positioned to evict Ken Sim.

Earlier this year, COPE and progressive parties struck an agreement to limit candidates and create a path towards a single Mayor. We have come to the moment where we at COPE have made our decision.

It has been the privilege of a lifetime to stand as the Mayoral candidate for COPE, a party with the deepest history of fighting the power of the super rich and showing up for the poor and working class people in our city.

COPE is a party dedicated to telling the truth. We are a diverse cohort of shared purpose. We have the lived experience, academic accomplishments, systemic analysis, and practical knowledge to examine the problems facing our city at the root cause level and to craft policies that will create lasting solutions.

But just as importantly, we at COPE have the love to care about the struggles that families, seniors, youth, working people and ALL those who have been pushed to the margins are going through, and we can see how much worse it’s getting for everyone.

We will not put our egos ahead of doing the right thing for Vancouver.

We know that it is mission critical to have one Mayor on the progressive side and that it has to be the person best positioned at this critical hour, to win the election.

We need a majority progressive Council, School Board, and Park Board to undo the damage done by this bad Mayor and the bad Mayors that came before him.

By stepping aside, we are showing to the people of Vancouver that we have heard you, that we will put you first, and that our commitment is to the long haul. Our movement will keep going, we will never give up the fight for a free and just society grounded in principles of care and community over greed and inequality.

Vancouver, we are here to do the right thing for you and we will keep doing the right thing. Getting a progressive majority on Council will have a direct positive material impact on the lives of people in our city.

And while we do that vital harm reduction through our existing electoral systems, we will stay relentless in dreaming up replacement systems. Ones that are restorative of people and planet, not extractive and exploitative. Ones that value life over profit, care over consumption, and healing over abuse and punishment.

The super-rich are planning our extinction. It’s obvious now. They don’t care about us, about the future generations to come, the climate, wildlife and natural habitat. All they see are ways to squeeze humanity and nature for the sake of piling more billions into their vaults.

You take care of your neighbours. It’s been an honour to speak to so many people over these last months who understand the threat facing our city, and our world. You have shared with me your stories, your frustrations, and your dreams of better.

Local shopkeepers, non-profit leaders, co-op housing members, people working in the gig economy, those who have and are being displaced from homes they love, advocates and organizers.

YOU are the ones with the solutions.

You have done the work to get food to the households that need it, help people recover from addictions and get the therapeutic support they need.

You are the ones who put in all the work to develop affordable homes, protect women and children fleeing violence, and care for seniors on low incomes. You make sure kids are protected from the cruelty in our society.

You also make this city cool with your dedication to the arts and culture scene in this city, with comedy festivals, activating parks and event venues with live music, theatre, and visual arts productions.

It is we, the people, who have the power. We always have, and we always will. Promise me, you’ll never lose sight of that.

So, as I leave the Mayoral race I want to say:

To Vancouver, you are worth fighting for … and this building, City Hall, is your house. Do not vote for anyone who would disrespect you or take you for granted in your house. Send ABC a message that their politics of division and selling out to the super rich are done.

To my fellow candidates, and the COPE staff, volunteers, and membership, thank you for the trust you put in me to carry our message to the city.

For your dedication to a better world, and for showing up everyday challenging yourselves and all of us to dream of a better future for our city. Despite all the things, I have never served alongside a better group of people anywhere. We’re in this now, I’m not going anywhere, we still got this ‘cuz we got each other.

To my friends and supporters, my family, my husband …  thank you for being there with your calls, texts, donations, hugs, so many hugs …and showing up when I didn’t expect you but absolutely needed you. Doing this work was only possible because of your love and care.

To our ancestors, all those who came before us and fought for us to have the freedoms we have now, freedoms you never saw, thank you for what you sacrificed and for dreaming of a better world for us.

To the future generations, we won’t let you down. We will stop climate change, eliminate poverty and homelessness, and make love and compassion the foundation of the structures that govern our lives.

In solidarity, and dedication to an affordable and just city and for a better world, I offer my sincere appreciation and love.

VanElxn2022 | The Green Party of Vancouver | Seek A Renewed Mandate

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Truth to tell, VanRamblings has some affection for all the folks involved in the Green Party of Vancouver. Deep in our heart we believe that — although we may differ on policy orientation, from time to time — that the Vancouver Greens seeking re-election to Vancouver City Council come the evening of E-Day, Saturday, October 15th — that would be incumbents Pete Fry, Michael Wiebe and Adriane Carr — along with Green Party of Vancouver candidates, Stephanie Smith and Devyani Singh … both of whom we know, like and admire … have the best interests of the citizenry of Vancouver at heart, and as a group are well-meaning and informed folks of conscience who day-in and day-out make decisions — with humility and heart — employing their best judgement on matters placed before them.

On July 9th, at Khatsalano Days in the Kitsilano Vancouver neighbourhood, VanRamblings happened across Vancouver City Councillor Michael Wiebe, who was standing in front of the Green Party of Vancouver booth. Spotting us, smiling that big goofy and welcoming smile of his, he waved us over to speak with him.

Now for a little context: last autumn, VanRamblings wrote that Mr. Wiebe and his Green Party colleague, Pete Fry, constituted two members of the Three Misogynist Musketeers brigade on City Council (Mayor Kennedy Stewart was the third party in the unkind trio), arising from their untoward treatment of their fellow Councillor, Colleen Hardwick, during the course, and outside, of Council meetings.

As well, when respected municipal affairs lawyer Ray Young published a report in September 2020 recommending that Mr. Wiebe resign his seat on Council, arising from a perceived conflict of interest — a report filed at the request of then City Manager, Sadhu Johnston — VanRamblings wrote three withering columns demanding Mr. Wiebe’s immediate resignation of his seat on Council.

With the above in mind, VanRamblings (gingerly) approached Mr. Wiebe. Towering over us (VanRamblings is height-challenged), Mr. Wiebe gave us a fist bump, and told us how glad he was to see us, after which we engaged in — by far — the best, the most expansive, the most detailed, the most informed, and the most humane conversation on Vancouver civic politics we have had with anyone involved in #vanpoli, at any point over the past four years.

Colour us mightily impressed.

Mature of demeanour, Mr. Wiebe — who we’ve known well since his election as a Park Board Commissioner, in 2014 — quietly let us know that these past four years have proved a mighty learning experience for the novice Vancouver City Councillor, which newfound knowledge, over the course of the past 24 months, has translated into a much more settled and thoughtful approach to governance, than previously.

Suffice to say, VanRamblings came away from that day’s discussion with Michael Wiebe with a respect and admiration for him, such that we are giving serious consideration to endorsing his candidacy for re-election to Vancouver City Council.

In June, while attending VanRamblings’ good friend (and long, our blog’s much-beloved webmaster) Mike Klassen’s 60th birthday party (Mike is currently an ABC candidate for Vancouver City Council) at the Polish Hall on Fraser Street, we were surprised to see respected and hard-working Green Party of Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry in attendance. Seems that Mr. Fry & Mr. Klassen have known one another dating back to their days writing for and working on Reverend Moonbeam’s (Darren Atwater’s) much-beloved Terminal City newspaper.

In the 90s, Pete — on this day, with a smile as big as all outdoors crossing his face, his eyes sparkling like the commencement of new day at sunrise, full of promise and intent for good —  was, he informed us, the Digiboy of fame and (not quite so much) fortune at Terminal City, and Mike Klassen long a much cherished colleague.

As we expected may have proved to be the case with Mr. Wiebe, there was the possibility, and perhaps not so remote a possibility, that upon spotting us in the Polish Hall, the affable and good-natured (not to mention, incredibly bright and principled) Mr. Fry might have wanted to punch our lights out, given the untoward provocations that he, from time to time, felt had been visited upon him by VanRamblings. Well, here we are today, in one piece, with no bloody nose.

Unpretentious, possessed of good humour, welcoming, friendly, gregarious of nature, articulate (no wonder the media in this town love him), humane and humble, possessed of an uncommon equanimity of presentation and spirit, VanRamblings has long liked, respected and admired Pete Fry — and although Mr. Fry is no particular fan of VanRamblings, either the person or the blog — our affection and respect for Pete Fry has not diminished one iota in all the years we’ve known him. VanRamblings liked Pete in the past & like and admire him through until this day.

As such, as with Mr. Wiebe, VanRamblings would consider endorsing Pete Fry’s re-election to Vancouver City Council, as a thoughtful and considerate candidate possessed of much integrity, who means well for the citizens of Vancouver, always.


The 2022 Green Party of Vancouver campaign launch. Candidate speeches begin at 2:45.

Writing the above about Mr. Wiebe and Mr. Fry, we recognize that it is imcumbent on VanRamblings to set about to formally interview the two Green Party City Councillors — as we arranged last evening at the 2022 Green Party of Vancouver campaign launch — in order to give them voice, to provide each candidate for re-election a forum to have recorded why it is these outstanding Vancouver City Councillors feel they are deserving of your vote, and another term on Council (and, let’s face it, each of these fine candidates very much are worthy of your vote), and what it is they would see themselves accomplishing on a second term on Council.