Record Turnout, a Tight Race, and Vancouver’s Political Future

We are on the last lap of Vancouver’s municipal election. Election day is Saturday, October 17^th.

If you care about who will occupy the mayor’s chair for the next four years, voting has never been more important

The latest opinion poll has my candidate, Pete Fry, four points ahead of incumbent mayor Ken Sim, which is close to the margin of error. A whopping 36% of potential voters remain undecided. Your vote will make a difference.

An earlier poll by Justason also showed progressive candidates well ahead in the race for Vancouver Council seats. Leading as of mid-September were COPE’s Sean Orr, followed by OneCity’s Lucy Maloney.

Ken Sim and his ABC party are pulling out all the stops. Their most recent ad is an attack on Pete Fry, which attempts to demonize COPE’s Sean Orr and then to connect Fry with Orr.

It is a desperate move by a desperate mayor.

Generally speaking, high voter turnout is an indicator of voter dissatisfaction and a sign the incumbent is in trouble. If that proves true, Ken Sim and ABC are indeed failing.

Record numbers of people have turned up on each of three days of advance voting. More than 74,000 people have voted as of October 11^th.

Fingers crossed that this is a positive omen for Pete Fry.

One other potential advantage for Fry is the agreement between the Greens, COPE, and OneCity to not split the progressive vote, while those not inclined to vote progressive will have to choose between ABC, the Vancouver Liberals, TEAM, and Vote Vancouver.

I hope that all the voters that COPE and OneCity get out for their respective parties will also vote for Pete Fry for mayor. The ABC ground game on election day is likely to be much better than that of the Vancouver Greens, which is a smaller party with fewer resources.

I strongly encourage you to vote on October 17^th if you haven’t voted already. We must remove one of the worst mayors Vancouver has ever had.

You can find where to vote at https://vancouver.ca/election/2026/where-to-vote.aspx. The final day of Advance Voting is Tuesday, October 13^th.

Daily atmospheric CO₂ [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]

Latest daily total (October 12, 2026): 426.78ppm

One year ago (October 08, 2025): 424.69ppm