A Look Into Vancouver's 2026 Mayoral Candidates

Photo Credit: Jacy Schindel/CBC

Ahead of Vancouver’s municipal election this October, mayoral candidates from ABC, COPE, OneCity, Vote Vancouver, Vancouver Liberals, TEAM Vancouver, and the Green Party have begun campaigning. To help voters navigate the upcoming mayoral ballot, the overviews below outline each candidate’s past experiences and key campaign promises, specifically regarding the housing crisis. 

Ken Sim, ABC Vancouver

Among the candidates is incumbent mayor Ken Sim of the ABC Vancouver party. Before entering office, Sim was as an accountant and investment banker before co-founding two businesses: Nurse Next Door and Rosemary Rocksalt bagels. He first ran for mayor in 2018, but lost to Kennedy Stewart by 957 votes. Then, in 2022, his political party, ABC Vancouver, won a majority government on a platform emphasizing public safety and affordability.

Sim credited Vancouver’s recent lower crime rates to his council’s actions. “We made those investments,” Sim said, according to CBC. “We put it out there that we're going to hire 100 new police officers [...] we've doubled down in terms of going after organized crime with Task Force Barrage, and the results show it.”

Furthermore, on Nov. 25, 2025, Sim and his ABC Majority passed the 2026 Zero Means Zero Budget, which delivers Vancouverites a 0 per cent property tax increase for 2026. 

One of the defining financial promises of Sim’s re-election campaign is granting another property tax freeze for 2027. According to CTV News, Ken Sim announced in a news release sent from the Office of the Mayor that if he was re-elected with a majority on council, “taxpayers would receive a second consecutive zero per cent property tax increase in 2027, with tax rates returning to the rate of inflation in the years following.”

Beyond the tax freezes, Sim’s platform plans to allocate $400 million in his next capital plan to go toward investments in infrastructure. With this particular agenda, he hopes to use the money to rebuild five community centres in Vancouver. 

On development and environmental policy, Sim promises to grant developers the personal choice to implement natural gas heating in new projects, pushing back against the city’s existing restrictions.

Kareem Allam, Vancouver Liberals

Kareem Allam enters the race as the nominee for the Vancouver Liberals, a new political party that he founded last year. Allam brings along 25 years of political experience and a history of assisting on 40 political campaigns, notably serving as the campaign manager for Ken Sim and the ABC party during the 2022 civil election. 

He briefly served as Sim’s chief of staff before being fired after accusations of an alleged impaired driving cover-up involving Sim were tied back to Allam, according to The Tyee. Following this dispute, an ongoing defamation lawsuit was filed by Sim last year against Allam and Vancouver real estate investor Alex Tsakumis; it is unlikely to conclude before election day in October.

In an interview with The Tyee, Allam emphasized his interest in scrapping the Vancouver Building Code in favour of the provincial code. Furthermore, to tackle the housing crisis, he plans on reducing the number of departments that low, mid, and high- density projects need to get approval from, bringing it down from the current 12 departments into just one. Next, he plans to launch a full bylaw review to ensure that there are no conflicting bylaws, in order to ease the burden of builders who have to navigate a “maze of bureaucracy and bylaws,” as per The Tyee.

On infrastructure and transit, his top priority is securing the Broadway Line Skytrain extension to UBC, formally incorporating the university campus into city boundaries. For social services, Allam promises to bring back the Renters Office, which was a dedicated city office that went toward helping tenants navigate Vancouver’s difficult job market, and repeal Sim’s supportive housing ban.

Finally, Allam has been very outspoken against Sim’s policies, particularly with how the East Hastings decampments have been handled. Kareem told The Tyee that Sim previously committed to offering housing to everyone decamped, but then “[Sim] decamped before that housing was ready.” To bolster frontline services, he intends to implement a 72-hour incarceration policy for individuals experiencing meth-induced episodes, drawing from Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew’s approach.

Pete Fry, Green Party

Vancouver’s Green Party has chosen two-term sitting city councillor Pete Fry as its mayoral candidate, marking the first time the party has selected a member to run for mayoral office in 30 years. Fry ran unsuccessful city council campaigns under the Green Party in 2014 and 2017 before successfully winning in the 2018 election. 

One of his campaign focuses is criticizing Sim, denouncing the incumbent’s “backroom style and lack of transparency” in a comment to CTV News.

Fry’s platform advocates for shifting public safety toward peer-based crisis intervention, heavily supporting the Car 87 program, which pairs police officers with mental health professionals when responding to crisis calls for those with mental illness. Furthermore, Fry supports BC adopting Oregon's CAHOOTS program. The CAHOOTS program is where a two-person team, a crisis worker and a medic, are dispatched through 911 to assist those in a behavioural health crisis, but emergency services are on speed dial if needed.

Fry also advocates for leveraging city-owned land to supply below-market housing tailored specifically to median-income earners.

Stephanie Allen, COPE

Stephanie Allen serves as the mayoral nominee for the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), automatically securing her candidacy on May 11 after running uncontested and meeting the party’s filing deadline. This race marks Allen’s first experience running in an election, though she has an extensive professional background in housing, urban development, and non-profit governance. She is the co-founder of Hogan’s Alley Society and operates Arinka Strategies, a consulting business.

Professionally, she served as a development manager at BC Housing from 2011 to 2017 and as Vice President of Strategic Business Operations from 2019 to 2023. According to CBC, Allen believes that this is a “critical moment” for Vancouver and feels that “it’s a time to step up and get in the fight.”

Allen’s campaign is built upon three distinct priorities: increasing affordability, enhancing city hall transparency, and building systemic tenant protections.

To achieve these goals, her housing strategy focuses heavily on reserving public lands for non-market developments and assisting with community land trusts so that workers can afford to build a life in the city. 

Furthermore, in cases of eviction due to redevelopment, Allen plans to ensure that those who are evicted can find a comparable new home instead of settling for an unsuitable one.

William Azaroff, OneCity

William Azaroff stands as OneCity’s confirmed mayoral candidate, winning his nomination in February after a two-month internal public party vote. Azaroff claimed the nomination after defeating internal opponent Amanda Burrows.

His initial campaign platform zeroes in on specific local infrastructure and community projects. His early commitments include modernizing Vancouver’s aging traffic light systems and fast-tracking an upgrade of the Britannia community centre. Furthermore, according to the Daily Hive Urbanized, Azaroff plans to build 4,000 affordable homes on City-owned land in Vancouver.

Additionally, Azaroff’s overarching campaign narrative centers squarely on collaborative opposition. According to CBC, he noted that “the most important thing is to defeat [ABC Vancouver’s] Ken Sim,” so that it is in OneCity’s interest to work together with COPE and the Greens.

His campaign received a major boost on May 20, when he secured an official mayoral endorsement from the Vancouver and District Labour Council (VDLC). Alongside this endorsement, the VDLC asked that Pete Fry and Stephanie Allen, the other left-wing candidates, consider stepping down from the election. 

Colleen Hardwick, TEAM Vancouver

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver is running Colleen Hardwick, who won the party’s mayoral nomination on Apr. 12. This marks Hardwick’s second run for mayor, having previously served on Vancouver City Council from 2018 to 2022 and placing third in the 2022 mayoral election behind Ken Sim and Kennedy Stewart. Most recently, she contested a vacant council seat during the April 2025 by-election, where she finished in third place.

Hardwick frames her campaign around a deep sense of personal obligation, stating that she has a strong sense of responsibility to apply her “background, knowledge, and experience to fixing what is broken in the city,” as per Business in Vancouver. She wants to ensure that her future children and grandchildren can afford to live in the city of Vancouver. 

Her platform is built upon three core priorities: planning for livability and affordability, community representation, and safety for all.

In order to connect directly with voters, she has committed to personally visiting each of Vancouver’s 22 individual neighbourhoods to listen to residents’ concerns.

Rebecca Bligh, Vote Vancouver

Vote Vancouver enters the civic campaign trail under its founder, city councillor Rebecca Bligh, who serves as the party’s chosen mayoral candidate. Bligh’s political trajectory began when she was elected to City Council in the 2018 election. Initially running as a member of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), she severed ties with the organization to serve as an independent midway through her first term. 

For the 2022 municipal ballot, she aligned herself with Ken Sim’s ABC Vancouver party and successfully won re-election. However, she was removed from the party in early 2025. In addition to her roles at city hall, Bligh has expanded her political experience to serving as president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Regarding the housing crisis, Bligh told The Tyee that she pledges to leverage “every square inch” of public land for below-market housing until the housing gap is filled. She also plans to embed child care into each of those developments.