Wow! Wow! It was a night beyond my wildest dreams.
I am talking, of course, about the Vancouver election results
It was not even close. Pete Fry, the Vancouver Greens’ candidate for mayor, decisively beat much-disliked ABC Vancouver’s incumbent mayor Ken Sim. Fry received 98,494 votes (47.78%) compared to Sim’s 67,467 (32.73%).
No other mayoral candidates came close. TEAM’s Colleen Hardwick came third but still received only 18,105 votes (8.78%) – more than her 2022 total of 16,769 but lower than that election’s 9.97% of the vote. Vancouver Liberal’s Kareem Allam came fourth with only 10,580 votes (5.13%), while Vote Vancouver’s Rebecca Bligh received only 8,681 (4.21%).
The overwhelming election of Pete Fry as mayor was not the only good news.
On Council, COPE elected every single one of the four candidates it ran – Sean Orr (83,038 votes); Chloe Leslie (67,791); Devyani Singh (65,473); and Solomon Yi-Kieran (60,361).
The Greens also elected four Councillors – Annette Reilly (78,476); Stephanie Smith (64,070); Camil Dumont (62,540); and Bridget Burns (57,788).
OneCity, which ran five candidates, elected only one, Lucy Maloney (63,143).
ABC, which had swept the field in the 2022 municipal election, winning all ten Council seats, elected only one this time – Mike Klassen (57,798).
In the School Board election, ABC was wiped out. They ran seven candidates and elected none. COPE ran four and elected all four – Suzie Mah, Melanie Cheng, Gwen Giesbrecht, and Derrick O’Keefe.
Three from OneCity (Krista Sigurdson, Rory Brown, and Steve Cardwell) and two Greens (Julie Strilesky and Alisha Masongsong) were also elected. Fingers crossed my favourite school board trustee, Suzie Mah, will be elected chair.
On the Park Board, ABC was once again wiped out. They ran nine candidates and elected none. Ditto OneCity. They also elected none.
COPE ran four and elected all four — T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, Tamiko Suzuki, Jamie Han, and Sacia Burton. The Greens elected three – Tom Digby, Spencer Van Vloten, and Breanne Smart.
None of the other parties running elected a single representative to City Council, the School Board, or the Parks Board.
It is hard to believe that just four years ago, in the 2022 municipal election, COPE elected no one to Council. In this election, we were the strongest political party. Kudos to our campaign manager, Shawn Vulliez. Shawn has worked tirelessly over the past four years rebuilding COPE. His success is evident in these election results.
I predict that Pete Fry and the rest of his Green team will work closely with COPE to reshape Vancouver. The environment will finally get the attention it desperately needs. So will housing and community infrastructure.
Election night marked the dawn of a new era for the City of Vancouver.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (October 19, 2026): 426.73ppm
One year ago (October 19, 2025): 424.80ppm
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Huge win.
I’ve never enjoyed working on an election campaign as much as that one. Except for working for a guy named Tim Louis and a guy named Harry Rankin.
Two questions for you:
(1) it struck me at the door and on the phone that a lot of younger people no longer connect with “party” as a structure – but rather as a movement. Can COPE transform into a movement outside City Hall?
(2) Thinking about what Thatcher did to the Greater London Council with the support of the UK bourgeois media…will the BC Cons and their friends at the CBC, CTV, Global etc… be coming for Vancouver? And will see an amalgamation of LOwer Mainlaind muicipalities? The intro of a ward system? The end to parties? And Torontofication of Vancouver? Thoughts?
In Solidarity,
John Richmond