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#VanPoli | Lakewood Terrace Housing Co-op 2026 Mayoral Debate

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L-R, 2026 Vancouver Mayoral candidates: Colleen Hardwick, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver; Rebecca Bligh, Vote Vancouver; William Azaroff, OneCity Vancouver; Stephanie Allen (standing), The Coalition of Vancouver Electors (COPE); Kareem Allam, Vancouver Liberals; Pete Fry, Green Party of Vancouver.

On Saturday, July 25th, Lakewood Terrace Housing Co-op held a Mayoral Debate.

The main issue before those gathered in the Co-op’s Common Room: housing.

An overflow crowd of Vancouverites attended the July 25 Mayoral debate at Lakewood Co-op

The first speaker of the afternoon was Colleen Hardwick, representing TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, under whose banner she was unanimously endorsed as the party’s standard bearer.


Colleen Hardwick, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver

As per usual, Ms. Hardwick was heartbreakingly articulate in her presentation, with a solid command of the housing issue — a critical tenet of TEAM’s platform document and, in reality, the raison d’être of the civic party — as Ms. Hardwick argued housing co-ops represent the best answer to the provision of affordable housing in Vancouver, and across the vast land we call Canada.

Sadly, as articulate as Ms. Hardwick is on a myriad of civic issues, as we have written previously, she is an imperfect messenger for TEAM’s various policy proposals. There is about Ms. Hardwick a meanness of character, a distinct lack of joy, or as a friend said recently “an offputting sharpness that would make it difficult, if not impossible for me to cast my ballot for her as our city’s next Mayor.”

Ms. Hardwick comes into the campaign with “baggage” — not the least of the concerns expressed by many her lack of a general appreciation of the “trans issue” — which translates into a utter lack of respect (never mind support) for the too often marginalized members of the trans community, that while a central tenet of the platform of right-of-centre B.C. Conservative Party leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay, hardly seems resonant with the views of the majority population of Vancouverites who will go to the polls this October.

Transphobia. The bane of TEAM for a Livable Vancouver Mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick’s existence, an issue likely to dog her second Mayoral bid.


Adrienne Smith, transgender human rights activist

The following is a quote by Adrienne Smith, a prominent Vancouver-based transgender human rights activist, social justice lawyer, and litigation director at the Catherine White Holman Wellness Clinic.

“The chair of the City’s own LGBTQ advisory committee was asked in open Council by Councillor Hardwick, after their submission, what their sex assignment was at birth. This is an incredibly invasive, inappropriate question. I’m going to give Councillor. Hardwick the benefit of the doubt that she learned something, but I’m still angry about that specific question.”

“Certainly, she’s had time to familiarize herself with some of the elements of contemporary transphobia and focusing on people’s sex assignment. Asking the Chair of the LGBTQ advisory committee about their surgical status, interrogating whether their gender identity is valid, is a central feature of transphobia.”


Andrea Reimer, former Vancouver City Councillor

Anti-reconciliation acknowledgment commentary by Colleen Hardwick.

Andrea Reimer, who sat on Council from 2008 to 2018 with Vision Vancouver, tweeted that her heart hurts and her head is angry over Councillor Colleen Hardwick’s vote against receiving a City report written by Katelyn Crabtree, the City’s Manager of Indigenous relations, and a specialist in Indigenous law.

“In 9 years of purposeful work in reconciliation, we achieved 100% unanimous votes on every single item brought forward,” Reimer says. “There was a lot of tough work — all of it involved land and money, because that’s what colonialism is all about.”

Councillor Hardwick also voted against City Manager Sadhu Johnston’s recommendation that Council direct staff to include in its Reconciliation Report an analysis of the status of  Vancouver’s reconciliation commitments — as well as recommendations for building on these commitments, as Ms. Hardwick openly questioned whether it is appropriate for the local level of government to “spend taxpayers’ money on reconciliation,” or if the issue  is the responsibility of senior levels of government. Ms. Hardwick also expressed her opposition to Council opening their meetings with a reconciliation acknowledgement, as recommended by Murray Sinclair, the author of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Report.

Rebecca Bligh, Vote Vancouver, and William Azaroff, OneCity Vancouver

   
Vote Vancouver’s Rebecca Bligh; and OneCity Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate William Azaroff

We are combining both Vote Vancouver  Mayoral candidate and sitting Vancouver City Councillor Rebecca Bligh, and OneCity Vancouver Mayoral candidate William Azaroff together given their polling numbers, at present, are in the basement, and the likelihood that either Mayoral candidate ascending to the Mayor’s office would seem remote, at best.

Rebecca Bligh. We are befuddled that the two term Vancouver City Councillor — and recent President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which represents the interests of Canadian cities vis-a-vis the federal government — is polling at a mere 0.5%. Wrenchingly articulate on the issue of housing during the course of the debate at the Lakewood Terrace Housing Co-operative Mayoral forum held on the afternoon of Saturday, July 25th, there was no Mayoral candidate addressing those gathered who argued as articulately and well for the construction of housing co-ops on City-owned / Crown land on a 99-year leasehold basis that afternoon than Councillor Bligh.

“To provide safety and truly affordable homes for struggling families who reside across all 23 of the neighbourhoods that comprise the city we all love.”

Yet, Councillor Bligh finds herself mired at dead last in support by those polled by the Pallas Data polling company. We’re confused.


Click on the link for further insight into the Pallas Data civic poll conducted on July 30, 2026

Subsequent to the meeting, as Councillor Pete Fry and VanRamblings were walking towards East Broadway and Commercial Drive, Councillor Fry wondered aloud as to why Councillor Bligh had come forward to seek the Mayor’s Chair, when from all reports she is polling terribly, and the chance that she might be Vancouver’s next Mayor would seem, at best, remote if not an impossibility, the two of us agreeing that in putting her name forward as a Mayoral candidate, Ms. Bligh was simply “bowing out of politics with grace.”

William Azaroff. OneCity Vancouver’s Mayoral candidate, endorsed by the Vancouver & District Labour Council, given his fiscal history working for the Vancity Credit Union, and since 2019, the CEO of Brightside Homes, a non-profit which builds affordable housing, Mr. Azaroff would seem to be a first-rate candidate for Vancouver Mayor. Not so, according to the Pallas Data polling company, and certainly not so if the response he received from those gathered for the forum on that Saturday afternoon is any indication.

Mr. Azaroff was hardly afforded an opportunity to speak, as each time he opened his mouth, he was heckled by one or another member of the audience, who questioned him as to why Brightside Homes so readily evicted their tenants on the thinnest possible evidence, and why Brightside — given so many of the tenants are vulnerable seniors — made it near impossible for residents to install air conditioners to mitigate the effects of Vancouver’s hot weather.

On a side note, if there is one candidate running for Mayor in 2026 that a surfeit of members of COPE, the Coalition of Progressive Electors are vehemently opposed, it would be the poor, woebegone Mr. Azaroff.

Polling at 2.3% — yep, seems just about right.

COPE, the Coalition of Progressive Elector’s Mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen (standing)

Quite simply, Stephanie Allen (standing, addressing the audience) walked away with the debate on that somewhat chilly, overcast Saturday afternoon, by far the most dynamic and engaging speaker of the afternoon, a charismatic presence at the front of the room, and the long sought saviour of COPE — the too often confused Coalition of Progressive Electors  …

A personal aside: Just what the hell is COPE Councillor Sean Orr doing when he floats the idea of bringing back the Villages Plan in the next term of Council … whose side is he on, anyway? … developers, or the community who spoke up so vehemently against the developer-initiated Villages Plan designed to enrich themselves at the expense of those of us who live in one of the 14 Vancouver neighbourhoods designated as “density friendly”, Councillor Orr seemingly ignoring the wishes of the hundreds of folks, the Vancouver residents who turned up to address Council on why the Villages Plan constituted non-consultative, top down, autocratic city planning, that utterly failed to take into consideration the wishes of the residents who have long called these neighbourhoods home, where we raise our families …

We don’t mean to be unduly harsh in our criticism of COPE Councillor Sean Orr, who has stepped up to the plate, put in the hours, making himself available to the public in every neighbourhood across our city after being elected as the top candidate voters cast a ballot for in the April 5, 2025 by-election, securing 34,448 votes, the highest among all the candidates running for Vancouver City Council.

Not to mention, the utter ugliness of the allegation made by Mayor Ken Sim about Councillor Orr, that Mr. Orr had distributed illegal drugs on the DTES over the December 2025 holiday season, an utterly specious and unfounded allegation, given that in reality Councillor Orr was visiting friends and family on the Sunshine Coast when he, according to Mayor Sim, allegedly was distributing drugs. Having spoken with Councillor Orr about the matter, we are quite aware that Sean was emotionally devastated by the allegation made by Mayor Sim, that sought to damage Mr. Orr’s hard earned reputation for integrity.

All said, thank goodness that COPE Mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen is the most knowledgeable Mayoral candidate on the issue of affordable housing, given her past role as the respected Vice President of BC Housing, who brings herself forward as the democratic socialist candidate in the 2026 Vancouver civic election, with a strong a commitment to the democratic participation of Vancouver residents on the issues that dominate their lives, and her long held belief that democratic socialism is the only true cure for the ills that impact the alienated and disenfranchised majority population of Vancouver, who for so long have been locked out of decision-making at Vancouver City Hall, as one autocratic civic administration after another assumed power at City Hall.

Make no mistake, a Stephanie Allen-led City — ably aided by Shawn Vulliez, who we expect would be her outstanding Chief of Staff — is committed to the democratic participation of the residents of Vancouver on the decisions taken at Vancouver City Hall that impact their lives, no autocrat she, but rather a democrat, and a democratic socialist of the first order.


Kareem Allam, Vancouver Liberals Mayoral candidate

Kareem Allam, Vancouver Liberals.

In a word, tepid.

One of the worst presentations by a candidate for office that we’ve witnessed over the course of our lifetime. When members of the audience repeatedly demanded that Mr. Allam “speak up, we can’t hear you,” you know there’s trouble in his candidacy for Mayor that must be addressed before the current Vancouver municipal election truly gets underway next month.

The above said, although to some extent for us “the bloom is off the rose” in respect of Mr. Allam’s Mayoral candidacy, our continuing and heartfelt belief that Kareem Allam would make the best Mayor of Vancouver the residents of our city would experience in a generation, as the only action-oriented candidate for Mayor who has a plan of action for change that will transform civic governance which truly represents the interests of all of us who call Vancouver home, both Kareem Allam and Stephanie Allen have our full-throated support as the two of them fight tooth and nail to become Vancouver’s next Mayor.

Mr. Allam has to recognize he’s the candidate, not a behind-the-scenes campaign manager, who must up his game if he is to become Vancouver Mayor.

At one point in the afternoon, Kareem mentioned — in passing, while addressing those gathered at the Lakewood Terrace Co-op — that he was the only Mayoral candidate who “grew up living in a housing co-operative”, after which he let his statement lie dormant, seemingly without meaning, as he addressed a crowd consisting mostly of housing co-op members !!! … before moving on to discuss his, for this crowd anyway, his utterly irrelevant personal family history, rather than waxing poetic on the salutary role living in a housing co-op afforded him, the sense of community imbued living in a housing co-operative, where opportunity was afforded him that might not otherwise be available to an immigrant family attempting to make a new life for themselves in Metro Vancouver.


Councillor Pete Fry, Green Party of Vancouver

Pete Fry is the status quo candidate, the avuncular and well-regarded opposition to the corrupt ABC Vancouver civic administration that has ruled Vancouver for the past four interminable years, under the unsteady thumb of an often too absent Mayor Ken Sim.

Were Pete to become Mayor — mark my words, we’d soon be referring to him as Mayor Pete — there is little doubt he’d bring back the Renter’s Office, and in time would re-instate the Livable Wage Programme at Vancouver City Hall that the Sim administration jettisoned early in their term of office.

Mayor Pete wouldn’t look to get much done, rather he’d be a caretaker — a sane and caring caretaker, unlike the current incumbent — of the Mayor’s office. An upside? A Mayor Pete would be much more available to the public than any Mayor in Vancouver’s recent history, a kind of Mayoral energizer bunny, who would be everywhere in the public weal throughout the entirety of his term in office.

VanRamblings harbours a concern that Emily Lowan, the current democratic socialist leader of the Green Party of British Columbia — who has endorsed Stephanie Smith for Council, the accomplished and sophisticated ‘woman of the people’ who is running under the Green banner for the second time (we’ll be endorsing Stephanie, whose voice and presence we need on Council) — would not endorse Pete Fry in a month of Sundays.

Maybe that’s what the citizens of Vancouver want: someone they know, someone they trust who won’t upset the apple cart, but dedicate himself to taking care of the basics (garbage pick up, recycling, road  maintenance. etc.) while keeping taxes down.

Although, we’re not so sure.

Research Co. and Angus Reid have recently published polling asking  Vancouver voters what they want. The answer according to 56% of those polled: change, significant and even radical change, not the status quo.

Change is in the air.

Pete Fry, for all that he’s a good guy would not in any way, shape or form be the Mayoral candidate of change for whom a majority of Vancouver voters would seem to wish to cast their ballot as the next leader of our beloved city, come this early autumn October. Or, so it would seem this early in the 2026 campaign for Vancouver municipal office.

On Thursday, VanRamblings’ intends to publish a thoughtful, reflective column on what the three serious-minded candidates to become Vancouver’s next Mayor — that would be COPE’s Stephanie Allen, the Vancouver Liberals’ Kareem Allam, and the Green Party of Vancouver’s Pete Fry — would mean for those of us who live in Vancouver, and call our respective neighbourhoods and our city, home.

 

#VanPoli | Frances Bula | A Must-Elect Candidate for Vancouver City Council

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Frances Bula, running as a OneCity Vancouver Council candidate in the 2026 civic election

After a career spent observing Vancouver City Hall from the press gallery, journalist Frances Bula is attempting something entirely different.

In 2026, Ms. Bula is seeking a seat on Vancouver City Council, as a candidate with OneCity Vancouver. As is stated on OneCity’s website, “Frances’s candidacy marks one of the most significant transitions in recent Vancouver civic politics — a reporter who spent years scrutinizing elected officials is now asking voters to entrust her with public office.”

VanRamblings wholeheartedly supports Frances Bula’s candidacy for Vancouver City Council. We believe Frances Bula, who we have long known and respected, to be a must-elect at the polls, in our upcoming October civic election.

As Frances has written — the information also to be found in OneCity Vancouver literature — Ms. Bula’s career in journalism spans more than four decades.

According to her own biography, Frances Bula began her reporting career in southeastern B.C. in 1983, the very day a province-wide general strike began. From those beginnings in community journalism, she gradually developed a lifelong fascination with cities, and the political systems that shape them.

The Journalist Who Helped Interpret Vancouver City Politics

Frances Bula has spent so many years explaining Vancouver to itself that, for many residents, it is difficult to imagine the city’s civic conversation without her.

For more than three decades, Ms. Bula has occupied a unique place in Vancouver public life: part journalist, part historian, part urban anthropologist, and part translator of the often bewildering language of municipal politics.

Frances Bula’s career in journalism spans more than four decades.

The defining chapter of her career began in 1994, when she started covering Vancouver municipal politics and urban affairs.

Over the course of the following years, Ms. Bula became one of the most respected and recognizable civic-affairs reporters in British Columbia. At the Vancouver Sun, where she spent approximately two decades as a staff reporter, she covered City Hall, education, housing, transportation, homelessness, development, infrastructure, drug policy, and nearly every other issue that defines urban life.

One pivotal moment in Frances Bula’s life came in 1998-99 when she received the prestigious Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy, after which she spent a year studying housing and homelessness issues, producing a major series and a documentary project that deepened her understanding of urban poverty and housing policy. Housing would become a central theme of her journalism.

Frances Bula Leaves the Vancouver Sun, to Re-Invent Her Journalism

In 2008, Ms. Bula left the Vancouver Sun, to become one of British Columbia’s most prominent freelance journalists, writing extensively for The Globe and Mail, as well as contributing to publications ranging from BCBusiness, Canadian Architect, Canadian Business, Western Living to The Guardian, and more.

Among Ms. Bula’s most influential post-Sun work was her column Urban Fix in Vancouver Magazine where from 2008 through 2015 she explored the challenges facing Vancouver as it grappled with growth, affordability, transportation, density, neighbourhood change, and urban planning, all while profiling a broad cross-section of political leaders, planners, community advocates, developers, architects, and the overlooked civic actors who influence how cities evolve, her work examining those in power and how power operates in urban environments.

Vancouver. Culture, Diversity, and Civic Life

Ms. Bula has long championed the idea cities are fundamentally about the citizens who reside in the city, and the communities in which they live.

Ms. Bula’s writing has highlighted Vancouver’s multicultural character, examining how immigrant communities shaped Vancouver neighbourhoods, transforming the city over time, reporting on Chinatown, the Punjabi Market, Richmond’s Asian communities, and Metro Vancouver’s changing demographics.

Similarly, Frances Bula has long possessed a deep interest in, and consistent supporter of, Vancouver’s cultural institutions and artistic life, her writing regularly exploring the connections between culture, public space, and civic identity.

Ms. Bula is also a supporter of the Vancouver International Film Festival, reflecting a broader interest that extended beyond politics, as she focused on film, the arts, and cultural expression, over the years emphasizing and prioritizing the importance of cultural institutions in creating vibrant, livable cities not solely about infrastructure, but about creativity, diversity, public life, and community.

Why Politics? What Frances Bula Hopes to Accomplish in Elected Office

The obvious question surrounding Frances Bula’s candidacy is simple: Why leave journalism for politics? Ms.Bula has offered a straightforward answer.

As she recently told journalist Kenneth Chan in the Daily Hive …

“Journalism was my service to the public for decades. Now I want to do public service more directly.”

After decades documenting problems and analyzing solutions, in 2026 Frances Bula has decided that she wants a direct role in civic decision-making.

In her run to secure a seat on Vancouver City Council, in her campaign literature Frances Bula has emphasized housing, livability, transparency, and effective governance, as well as fighting for civic improvements that will make Vancouver function better for residents. Few candidates in Vancouver history would arrive at Vancouver City Hall with as deep an understanding of municipal governance and the institutional knowledge about how Vancouver City Hall operates.

Based on her writing and public statements, several priorities appear likely to define Frances Bula’s approach to public office.

  • Housing will almost certainly be central. Throughout her career she has treated housing affordability as Vancouver’s defining challenge;
  • Advocating for evidence-based policy making, drawing lessons from successful initiatives elsewhere;
  • Ms. Bula has also expressed an interest in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal government. Her own experiences navigating the permitting process while building a laneway house provided first hand exposure to the frustrations many residents experience when dealing with City Hall;
  • Balancing growth with livability, recognizing Vancouver must accommodate more residents while preserving the qualities that make neighbourhoods attractive;
  • Strengthening public trust in local government through transparency, accountability, and thoughtful decision-making.

For 30-plus years, Frances Bula sat inside Council Chambers, notebook in hand, watching elected officials wrestle with the complexities of governing a rapidly changing city, observing the administrations of multiple mayors, political parties, planning movements, housing booms, and civic controversies, chronicling their triumphs and failures, ambitions and unintended consequences.

Few people understand Vancouver’s civic history as comprehensively as she.

Now, Frances Bula wants in, to step into the story she once covered.

For decades, Vancouver residents relied on Ms. Bula to explain City Hall.

In 2026, VanRamblings endorses the candidacy of Frances Bula for Vancouver City Council, as she asks the residents of our city for the opportunity to serve.

The journey — from reporter to candidate, from observer to participant — may prove to be one of the most intriguing civic stories Vancouver has seen in years.

VanRamblings asks you to vote for Frances Bula for Council this October.

Vancouver 2026: The Shape of the Next Civic Showdown

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On October 17, 2026, Vancouver voters will head to the polls for the city’s 42nd municipal election. With the once-dominant ABC Vancouver now floundering, and new forces surging from both the centre and the left, next year’s election campaign promises to be one of the most competitive — and transformative — in decades.

The Collapse of ABC Vancouver

In 2022, Ken Sim’s ABC Vancouver swept all three levels of municipal governance — Mayor, City Council, Park Board, and School Board — in an historic rout. Four years later, that landslide looks like an aberration, the result of voter fatigue with the now moribund Vision Vancouver and a desire for change.

Since then, however, the Sim administration has struggled. Public dissatisfaction with his handling of homelessness, public safety, and affordability has steadily grown. Community groups accuse Sim of being unresponsive; critics inside City Hall describe an administration consumed with internal squabbles. By 2026, Sim’s brand has soured to the point where many observers believe his party faces the same fate as the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) before it: political extinction.

Few expect ABC Vancouver to elect more than one or two Councillors — if that — while Sim’s re-election prospects appear dim. His fate seems sealed: destined, as one longtime watcher quipped, “for the scrap heap of civic history.”

The Rise of the Vancouver Liberals

Into this vacuum steps Kareem Allam, the political strategist best known for his work on high-profile campaigns across the province, and federally. With deep connections to federal and provincial networks, Allam has quietly built a formidable war chest and, earlier this year, formally launched the Vancouver Liberals.

Armed with deep pockets, disciplined messaging, and a polished campaign operation, the Vancouver Liberals are poised to make a splash in their first municipal contest. Allam himself has already announced his intention to run for Mayor. Though untested on the ballot, he enters the race with credibility as a strategist, access to resources, and the ability to tap into moderate, disillusioned ABC voters.

The question is whether Allam can translate money and machinery into broad support in a city still wary of political rebranding. His pitch — competence, pragmatism, and fiscal responsibility — will resonate with centrist homeowners and business interests. The Vancouver Liberals will likely emerge as a significant force on Council and could very well win the mayoralty if progressive forces split the vote.

The Green Party of Vancouver

The Greens enter 2026 with only one sitting Councillor, Pete Fry, who has proven durable and personable. Fry’s strength lies in his grassroots connections and ability to appear pragmatic rather than ideological. He will almost certainly hold his seat.

But the Greens face the perennial challenge of being seen as a single-issue party. With climate concerns real but overshadowed by affordability and housing, their ceiling remains low. Expect one or two seats at most, unless they can expand their message to broader urban issues.

COPE’s Resurgence

The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), long a marginal presence, has been reinvigorated by activist energy. The April 2025 by-election was a turning point: Sean Orr, poverty and housing activist, topped the polls, proving that unapologetic left-wing politics still have a constituency in Vancouver.

Orr’s victory has galvanized COPE’s base, particularly among renters, young voters, and those frustrated with market-driven housing policy. If COPE can harness that momentum, they could secure multiple seats on Council for the first time in a generation.

OneCity’s Momentum

Meanwhile, OneCity Vancouver has built a reputation as the progressive party best positioned to compete citywide. The April by-election was a breakthrough: Lucy Maloney scored a resounding victory, finishing just behind Orr, cementing OneCity’s profile.

With a strong organization, a message rooted in housing reform, and credibility among progressive professionals, OneCity is poised to expand its presence. They are likely to elect several Councillors, and could, in the right alignment of votes, mount a credible mayoral challenge in future cycles.

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver

If 2022 was disappointing for TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, 2026 may be decisive. The party, rooted in nostalgia for the TEAM brand of the 1970s, ran a distant third four years ago and failed to elect anyone. Their anti-development messaging resonates in pockets of the west side, but increasingly feels out of step with a city desperate for housing solutions.

TEAM’s leader, Colleen Hardwick, will once again run for mayor. Though she brings name recognition and experience, her prospects remain dim. Without a breakthrough, TEAM risks irrelevance.

The Mayoral Race

With Ken Sim floundering and Colleen Hardwick confined to a narrow base, the mayoral contest appears to be shaping into a four-way showdown between Ken Sim, Kareem Allam, Rebecca Bligh, Colleen Hardwick and the progressive forces aligned with COPE and OneCity.

  • Ken Sim (ABC Vancouver): The incumbent’s approval ratings have cratered. Re-election is highly unlikely.

  • Colleen Hardwick (TEAM): Hardwick will keep TEAM visible, but her chances of victory remain minimal.

  • Kareem Allam (Vancouver Liberals): A brilliant strategist with money and momentum, Allam could emerge as the leading challenger to Sim. His appeal to centrists and disillusioned moderates makes him a real contender.

  • Rebecca Bligh (Independent/possible Vancouver Liberals ally): The two-term Councillor has yet to formally declare, but her active fundraising signals intent. Bligh’s profile is strong: current two-term president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, respected within Vancouver, with cross-partisan appeal. If she enters, she could fracture the centrist vote — or, if aligned with Allam, form a powerhouse ticket.

A Fragmented Future

The 2026 election is shaping up to be less about a single dominant party and more about a fragmented Council, with multiple blocs competing for influence. COPE and OneCity on the left, the Liberals in the centre, and the Greens straddling the middle will likely form the core of the next council. ABC and TEAM, once serious players, appear destined for the margins.

The mayoralty will hinge on whether progressives can consolidate behind a single candidate or whether the vote splinters. If divided, Allam and the Vancouver Liberals may well capture the Mayor’s chair, ushering in a new centrist era. If united, the left has a chance to seize city hall.

Either way, October 17, 2026, will mark a turning point. The Sim era is over; what comes next is still unwritten.

An Important Note

Today’s VanRamblings’ column was created entirely by Open AI’s ChatGPT artificial intelligence engine, in response to the instruction: write a 900 word column on the 2026 Vancouver municipal election, and the 5 parties seeking office that intend to run candidates for Vancouver City Council. In addition, write about the candidates for Vancouver Mayor, and what you believe their prospects will be come 2026.

#VanPoli | Mayor Ken Sim and the Sadly Premature Death of ABC Vancouver

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ABC Vancouver, the upstart Vancouver civic party that only 22 months ago ascended to super majority status at Vancouver City Hall, with mayoral candidate, businessman and novice politico Ken Sim achieving a record number of votes on election night, Saturday, October 15th, 2022, carrying seven Councillors on his coattails to victory, to dominate civic politics, in August 2024 is a municipal party — although once celebrated — very much in freefall and worrisome disarray.

In a recent conversation with a long serving, retired Vision Vancouver City Councillor, the Councillor told us of her many conversations with ABC Vancouver’s electeds, who have expressed to her — as has been the case with VanRamblings’ conversations with various ABC Vancouver electeds — a distress and a mournfulness at the goings on at Vancouver City Hall, in the main emanating from the Mayor’s office and his “bullying staff”, an unfortunate and disconcerting arbitrariness, a lack of consultation, respect and engagement (not to mention prior notice) involving a series of “surprising” dictums by Mayor Ken Sim.

None more surprising, of course, than the arbitrary and unilateral reversal by Mayor Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver’s commitment to, and support of, a much cherished Vancouver institution, the 135-year-old elected Vancouver Park Board.

Following a week-long sojourn in ABC Vancouver founder Peter Armstrong’s luxurious, well-appointed yacht up British Columbia’s west coast, Ken Sim arrived back in Vancouver in early December of 2023 to announce — with the shortest possible notice to his fellow ABC Vancouver electeds — of his intention to ask the province to change the city charter, to shift Park Board’s responsibilities to Council, in the process unilaterally eliminating our cherished 135-year-old elected Park Board.

Where else has Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver gone wrong, losing the support of a Vancouver populace who elected the civic party with so much hope for better?

  • Shuttering the Rental Office at Vancouver City Hall, established by the previous Council to help renters. Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver promised to transfer the funds  allocated to the Rental Office to TRAC — the Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre — in the process committing, as well, to move TRAC into a newly renovated, City-owned building on Howe Street, neither of which commitments have been fulfilled to date;
  • In the most unconscionable manner, scrapping Vancouver’s Livable Wage Programme that certified employers who provide services and supplies to the City of Vancouver pay a living wage of $25.68 per hour to their employees;
  • Increasing property taxes by the highest amount ever, in December 2022 by 10.7%, and in December 2023, by 7.5%. Note should be made that in Port Coquitlam, Mayor Brad West’s City Council raised the 2022 property tax by 3.55% and in 2023, by 5.58%, all while providing supportive and affordable housing, and a new community centre;
  • Restricting public access to Council decision-making by allocating only 3 minutes rather than 5 minutes to citizens addressing their concerns to Council, while disallowing Councillors the opportunity to ask clarification questions to speakers;
  • Committing to hiring 100 police officers, and 100 public health nurses for an expanded Car 87 mental health programme, fulfilling only the first part of ABC Vancouver’s commitment to the citizens of Vancouver.

More concerns about Ken Sim, in particular: Mayor Ken Sim has missed a full one-third of Council meetings during his 21-month tenure as Mayor. As of March of this year, Sim had been marked absent 222 times, including during the vote on one of his most significant campaign promises.

As Stewart Prest, a lecturer in political science at UBC, told CTV Vancouver …

“I think when we start to get to the range of missing one vote in three, it’s worth asking the question of whether the Mayor is actually showing up to do the job that he was primarily elected to do,” Prest said.

“The Mayor is elected, first and foremost, to represent Vancouverites at Council and if the Mayor is missing in action for a significant amount of those deliberations – even apart from casting the vote – if the Mayor is not there to offer his perspective, then there may be the appearance, if not the reality of not doing a crucial part of his job,” Prest told CTV News.

Concern was expressed recently when, presiding over an emergency Council meeting that would effectively stop the work of Vancouver City Hall’s Integrity Commissioner, Lisa Southern, Mayor Sim wore a baseball cap, T-shirt and light running shorts to Council, lessening the dignity of the office, as if somehow Mr. Sim is not the Mayor of Canada’s third largest city, but an interloper at City Hall.


Lisa Southern, Integrity Commissioner, City of Vancouver

Of course, attempting to shutter the office of the Integrity Commissioner, disallowing Commissioner Southern from investigating and weighing in, purportedly, to complaints leveled against the Mayor and members of his ABC Vancouver Council contingent, is only the latest “scandal” to befall Vancouver’s inept, part-time, decidely unserious, and let’s face it “not fit for the job” baseball cap wearing Mayor.

Former Vancouver Sun Managing Editor / publisher-editor of Business in Vancouver / 2014 candidate for Mayor of the City of Vancouver, Kirk LaPointe, weighs in on the Southern fiasco …

“What appeared to be a routine motion to get a third-party review of the mandate was amended at the meeting to propose freezing Southern’s work for an indefinite period until the review was complete. This isn’t standard practice while mandates are reviewed — usually, it’s just business as usual while the amendments are assembled — and critics immediately wondered if Council was just trying to silence the Commissioner and the complainants. (The Mayor’s chief of staff insists the review would be done swiftly.)

The amendment passed, but Council needed another recent meeting to amend the bylaw for its measure to take effect. Meantime, Southern got busy writing and releasing two reports arising from complaints. One complaint (from a Park Board Commissioner) alleged Sim and his officials tried to influence Park Board decision-making and leadership, and a second complaint (filed by Sim’s senior advisors) alleged two Park Board Commissioners contravened the City’s code of conduct by recording and sharing phone calls they made to one of them. Southern dismissed both complaints, but her reports on them splayed open the discordant municipal political culture.

It appeared we were headed for a work freeze, but on the day before the meeting, another complaint about the ABC Councillors landed with the Integrity Commissioner from an opposition Councillor, the Green Party’s Pete Fry (son of Liberal MP Hedy Fry). Details of the complaint aren’t yet public, but Fry decided to inform Councillors and the city manager of his complaint as it was filed. In doing so, he stymied Councillors from voting on the freeze of Southern’s work. After all, in being named in the complaint, they would have been conflicted and have to recuse themselves at least until the Commissioner’s office could investigate and rule on it.

Out of caution, Sim adjourned the meeting until late September, but not before chiding Fry and insisting again that his goal was an improved Integrity Commissioner’s office. Two things were most evident at the meeting: Sim’s frustration, and the surprising absence of two of his own ABC Councillors (ed. clearly unhappy, Lisa Dominato and Rebecca Bligh) from a meeting where one would think solidarity and attendance would be a whipped must.”

LaPointe raises further concerns, in writing …

“Last week, the ABC Vancouver Chair of the School Board, Victoria Jung, quit ABC Vancouver to sit an an Independent over the integrity issue; she may not be the last to leave, and each departure further fritters the momentum of the 2022 mandate most everyone thought would be so empowering.”

For some time now, there’s been a movement afoot to create a Unity Slate for the 2026 Vancouver municipal election that would be backed by the Vancouver District & Labour Council, such Unity Slate that could include Melody Ma, Council candidates from COPE (think Tanya Webking, Derrick O’Keefe), TEAM (Colleen Hardwick, Cleta Brown or Sean Nardi), former Vision Vancouver electeds (Overdose Prevention Society founder, Sarah Blyth and/or former Park Board Chair, Aaron Jasper), One City Vancouver (Dulcy Anderson and/or Tessica Truong),  Green Party electeds (Pete Fry and/or Adriane Carr), and former ABC Vancouver electeds, now Independents (Scott Jensen, and/or Laura Christensen / Brennan Bastyovanszky).

Unity Slate Mayoral candidates: BC NDP MLA Mable Elmore, or NDP MP Don Davies.