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<\/p>\nThe Vancouver race culminates Saturday, when municipalities across British Columbia go to the polls.<\/p>\n
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Interest in the Vancouver race appears high. The City of Vancouver says more than 103,000 people have voted in advance, up 60 per cent from roughly 65,000 voters over five advance days in 2022.<\/p>\n
Sim, who is campaigning for a second term as mayor with the right-of-centre ABC Vancouver, said while he would be the first to admit he didn\u2019t get everything right during his tenure, he believes he can lead the city in the right direction. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten some pretty significant things done, but there\u2019s way more work to do,\u201d he said in an interview Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Other candidates include Rebecca Bligh, a two-term councillor who helped get Sim elected with ABC Vancouver in 2022 and is now running with Vote Vancouver, and TEAM candidate Colleen Hardwick, a former councillor.<\/p>\n
Allam, Hardwick and Bligh all rejected the notion their candidacies could split the centre or centre-right vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is not left or right. The question is about who we are serving at city hall,\u201d Hardwick said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Bligh said she was running to govern for Vancouver\u2019s ignored middle class, and polling did not change how she campaigned. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s anyone\u2019s race,\u201d she said in an interview Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Fry, son of longtime Liberal MP Hedy Fry, has acknowledged benefiting from the narrowing of the progressive field, after the withdrawals of William Azaroff from OneCity Vancouver and Stephanie Allen for COPE Vancouver.<\/p>\n
After ending his candidacy, Azaroff appeared at City Hall with Fry, who praised him for running a serious campaign that \u201craised real issues\u201d such as housing, small business and affordability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think folks are excited to be able to talk up a viable alternative to Ken Sim as the mayor of Vancouver and really reset,\u201d Fry said in an interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He added that Azaroff\u2019s withdrawal was recognition that he was the person best suited to defeat Sim.<\/p>\n
Bligh said she\u2019s a progressive candidate with a centrist platform. Meanwhile, Allam said he believed he was taking votes from Sim and Fry equally. <\/p>\n
The candidates\u2019 platforms all emphasize quality-of-life issues, including affordability and public safety. Sim\u2019s promises include a zero per cent property tax increase. <\/p>\n
The election ballot also includes two plebiscite questions on public safety.<\/p>\n
The non-binding questions ask voters if they\u2019re in favour of the city \u201cstrengthening its laws to forbid open-air hard drug use in public spaces,\u201d which is already illegal in B.C. The other asks if the city should ask the province to convert portions of the old St. Paul\u2019s hospital into a \u201csecure medical facility\u201d with 100-plus involuntary care beds.<\/p>\n
Hardwick called the questions a \u201cpopulist election tactic,\u201d while other critics said they aren\u2019t realistic. <\/p>\n
Sim said strengthening the city health bylaw \u2014 regulating conduct such as smoking in common areas \u2014 would allow officers to issue tickets or confiscate drugs without arrests. The involuntary care question, he said, is about asking the province to fulfil its accountability to people who pose a risk to their own safety or others. <\/p>\n
Fry said he supports managing drug use in public spaces, but differs from Sim in believing that people should be diverted to supervised consumption sites or shelters.<\/p>\n
His platform focuses on housing, transportation and the economy. \u201cFolks should be able to have a good life in this city, he said. <\/p>\n
Bligh said Sim\u2019s property tax freezes protect wealthy landowners and undercut critical services. She said she would work with the federal government to leverage city-owned land and provide free transit for youth. <\/p>\n
Hardwick said the key to livability in Vancouver is effective city planning. She said she wanted to repeal the city\u2019s official development plan and re-establish neighbourhood planning offices <\/p>\n
Allam said he wants to bring youth back to Vancouver by improving affordability through jobs and housing, and investing in parks and community centres.<\/p>\n
He said his platform cuts across ideologies, and distanced himself from Sim, who filed a lawsuit in May 2025 alleging Allam falsely accused him of drinking and driving. <\/p>\n
Sim faces his own defamation lawsuit from councillor Sean Orr, filed after falsely accusing Orr of distributing illegal drugs in comments to Chinese-speaking reporters.<\/p>\n
Trials in both cases are far off. <\/p>\n
For now, the focus is on the ballot box.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people will be surprised at the results,\u201d Allam said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026. <\/p>\n
Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vancouver race culminates Saturday, when municipalities across British Columbia go to the polls. Interest in the Vancouver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82,55],"class_list":["post-933784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}