Vancouver Civic Election 2026

[Feathered Friend]

COPE's nominees for council joining Sean Orr:

Solomon Yi-Kieran
Chloe Leslie
Devyani Singh
Angela Liu

https://www.votecope.ca/news/cope-member...allen-for-mayor-pick-2026-election-slate

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

COPE's nominees for council joining Sean Orr:


https://www.votecope.ca/news/cope-member...allen-for-mayor-pick-2026-election-slate

Well at least COPE, Greens and , One City are quite distinct in their candidates.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Well at least COPE, Greens and , One City are quite distinct in their candidates.

Ironically they're acting as though their 3 slates are similar enough that they expect people to vote COPE+Green+OneCity all the way down ballot.

[SpongeG]

So Sean Orr is a council member, if he runs for Mayor and loses does he lose his council spot? and is out of it all?

[madog222]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

So Sean Orr is a council member, if he runs for Mayor and loses does he lose his council spot? and is out of it all?

All of the councillors’ terms are up, to be part of the new council they need to be elected this fall.

[Feathered Friend]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

So Sean Orr is a council member, if he runs for Mayor and loses does he lose his council spot? and is out of it all?

Stephanie Allen is COPE's candidate for mayor, Sear Orr is running for re-election as a councilor.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c...allen-vancouver-mayor-election-9.7186047

[SpongeG]

oh ok, i must have misheard, on the radio I thought they said he was a mayoral candidate, i really don't like the guy and was hoping he'd be gone.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

oh ok, i must have misheard, on the radio I thought they said he was a mayoral candidate, i really don't like the guy and was hoping he'd be gone.

Are you Ken Sim?

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by mcj

Are you Ken Sim?

Sean Orr is a socialist so it's easy to see how lots of folks might not be a fan of him

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

Sean Orr is a socialist so it's easy to see how lots of folks might not be a fan of him

I'm not a fan of him because he's a COPE-brand NIMBY.

[Glow Fun City]

Originally Posted by chowhou

I'm not a fan of him because he's a COPE-brand NIMBY.

Ditto, plus the whole hating Jews thing

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by mcj

Are you Ken Sim?

This Ken Sim?

Investigation concludes Vancouver mayor misused influence of office to ‘personally attack’ city councillor at news conference
Probe related to concerns raised by Ken Sim, Jewish groups over social media posts by Sean Orr before he was elected in the April 2025 byelection
Mike Howell
about 16 hours ago

A lawyer retained by the City of Vancouver to investigate a complaint lodged by Coun. Sean Orr against Mayor Ken Sim has ruled that the mayor misused the influence of his office to hold a news conference with Jewish groups in April 2025 to suggest Orr was antisemitic.

Jamie Pytel of Kingsgate Legal also ruled that a post the mayor wrote on the X social media platform in October 2025 was a “continuation of the harassment” of Orr that suggested he was in support of terrorist organizations and antisemitism...

https://www.biv.com/biv-rss-linkedin/inv...y-councillor-at-news-conference-12285552

[mcj]

Originally Posted by Glow Fun City

Ditto, plus the whole hating Jews thing

Could that be made up slander? The article below says it is, complete with court ruling.

Originally Posted by whatnext

This Ken Sim?

Investigation concludes Vancouver mayor misused influence of office to ‘personally attack’ city councillor at news conference
Probe related to concerns raised by Ken Sim, Jewish groups over social media posts by Sean Orr before he was elected in the April 2025 byelection
Mike Howell
about 16 hours ago

A lawyer retained by the City of Vancouver to investigate a complaint lodged by Coun. Sean Orr against Mayor Ken Sim has ruled that the mayor misused the influence of his office to hold a news conference with Jewish groups in April 2025 to suggest Orr was antisemitic.

Jamie Pytel of Kingsgate Legal also ruled that a post the mayor wrote on the X social media platform in October 2025 was a “continuation of the harassment” of Orr that suggested he was in support of terrorist organizations and antisemitism...

https://www.biv.com/biv-rss-linkedin/inv...y-councillor-at-news-conference-12285552

[Glow Fun City]

Originally Posted by mcj

Could that be made up slander? The article below says it is, complete with court ruling.

If you're not a Jew, you don't get to make public jokes about negative Jewish stereotypes (even if you happen to be paraphrasing a Jewish comedian).


Denying Jewish self-determination in our Indigenous homeland and false claims of genocide (ie. blood libel) are also forms of Jew hatred, but that's another discussion…

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by mcj

Could that be made up slander? The article below says it is, complete with court ruling.

His record isn't exactly great in that respect either.





Deleted tweets of course, but the record is out there.

[whatnext]

Why does Ken Sim think free swimming lessons for beginners is a core municipal need?

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7203656

[kikin]

Originally Posted by chowhou

His record isn't exactly great in that respect either.





Deleted tweets of course, but the record is out there.

crazy

[Feathered Friend]

The municipal political party of sitting Vancouver city councillor Rebecca Bligh has officially confirmed its first nine candidates for the October 2026 civic election.

Over the past weekend, Vote Vancouver unanimously endorsed candidates to run in each of the three chambers of municipal governance, along with Bligh as the party’s mayoral candidate.

Within City Council, Vote Vancouver’s candidates include small business owner and Vancouver Pride Society president John Boychuk, B.C. Centre for Disease Control public health scientist and University of British Columbia adjunct professor Rebecca Hasdell, scientific researcher and seniors’ advocate Bhavna Solecki, and entrepreneur and the former film commissioner of the Vancouver Economic Commission Geoff Teoli.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vote-vancouver-party-first-candidates-civic-election-2026

Here's Bhavna Solecki speaking at the Pause The Broadway Plan rally a few years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN6rtlwqZ-Y

[GenWhy?]

I've been getting asked from friends a lot about, and combing through election platforms on housing and I've noticed one glaring honest mistake or a purposeful attempt to misguide on COPE's website. Hoping to get some data folks to have a look.

COPE claims "Vancouver" lost 47,000 affordable homes between 2016-2021. I assume they intend to mean Vancouver proper as the image below this quote refers to Vancouver proper's 10-year (2024-2033) housing targets.
https://www.votecope.ca/platform

This number seemed outright wrong so I used the hyperlink and my interpretation is the following:
- There was a gross loss of 47,000 homes in Metro Vancouver with rents under $1,000 between 2011-2021
- There was a net loss of 35,250 homes in Metro Vancouver with rents under $1,000 between 2011-2021

"Loss" here does not mean demolished, but could be lost due to annual rent increases or folks moving out and new tenants being charged a higher rent.

I assume most of these losses are from Burnaby? I don't have the numbers or time to look up net loss of homes rented at or under $1,000 for Vancouver proper. Would be neat to know regardless.

I assume Vancouver's target from 2024-2033 for what could be homes with rents under $1,000 is a net 9,400 (supportive and below HILs rates), according to their Report.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by GenWhy?

I've been getting asked from friends a lot about, and combing through election platforms on housing and I've noticed one glaring honest mistake or a purposeful attempt to misguide on COPE's website. Hoping to get some data folks to have a look.

COPE claims "Vancouver" lost 47,000 affordable homes between 2016-2021. I assume they intend to mean Vancouver proper as the image below this quote refers to Vancouver proper's 10-year (2024-2033) housing targets.
https://www.votecope.ca/platform

This number seemed outright wrong so I used the hyperlink and my interpretation is the following:
- There was a gross loss of 47,000 homes in Metro Vancouver with rents under $1,000 between 2011-2021
- There was a net loss of 35,250 homes in Metro Vancouver with rents under $1,000 between 2011-2021

"Loss" here does not mean demolished, but could be lost due to annual rent increases or folks moving out and new tenants being charged a higher rent.

I assume most of these losses are from Burnaby? I don't have the numbers or time to look up net loss of homes rented at or under $1,000 for Vancouver proper. Would be neat to know regardless.

I assume Vancouver's target from 2024-2033 for what could be homes with rents under $1,000 is a net 9,400 (supportive and below HILs rates), according to their Report.

Inflation was also 17% between 2011 and 2021, so assuming no "real" rent increases we would have expected all units with rents between $850 and $1000 to be "lost" due to natural inflation. Normally I would assume they'd have inflation corrected, but it legitimately does not seem like they did.

But really? COPE, a socialist party, playing with bad statistics? How could this ever happen!

Anyway, seems like no one else has posted this:

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-pol...election-despite-abolition-push-12546941

Sim’s ABC party to run park board candidates in Vancouver election despite abolition push

Sim says: 'The province basically made it impossible for us to do it.'

Mayor Ken Sim announced Monday that his ABC Vancouver party will run park board candidates in the October municipal election, despite his long unsuccessful fight to abolish the seven-member elected board.

“The province basically made it impossible for us to do it,” he said at a news conference July 13 held at Kitsilano Beach Park. “We will continue to fight for parks, and this is the best route going forward.”

Sim told reporters in December 2023 that he wanted to scrap the board and suggested then that it would be done in short order. To dissolve the board, the provincial government would be required to amend the Vancouver Charter.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs said in an email at the time that “we will take the necessary steps to implement the decision of [Vancouver’s] elected city council.” City staff then spent the better part of a year creating a plan to make the transition.

What happened next was a series of exchanges between Sim’s office and the ministry, which requested consultation with First Nations. Along the way, Premier David Eby first signalled abolition would happen and then said in October 2024 that the issue wasn’t a priority for his government.

Fast forward to October 2025 and the provincial government tabled legislation that gave Vancouver city council the option to hold a referendum, if it wanted to execute Sim’s plan to abolish the elected park board.

Sim told Business in Vancouver in January 2026 that he would not hold a referendum.

Monday’s news conference confirmed the mayor's decision to stop his fight to replace the elected board. Sim’s belief in pushing for abolition is that parks and recreation would be better served under city council and save taxpayers money.

“We've learned a lot,” he said Monday. “We didn't realize the bureaucracy that we'd be facing and how difficult the province would be on this one issue.”

ABC Vancouver has not named its park board candidates, but current ABC commissioners Jas Virdi and Angela Haer were present at the news conference. Councillors Sarah Kirby-Yung, Lenny Zhou, Mike Klassen, Peter Meiszner and Lisa Dominato also joined Sim.