Vancouver voters dealt a blow to Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC party on Saturday, throwing their support behind two left-leaning candidates in a byelection widely seen as a critique of their governance. Read More
Meanwhile, Vancouver’s city manager acknowledged that one-to-two-hour wait times during Saturday’s byelection were “unacceptable”
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Meanwhile, Vancouver’s city manager acknowledged that one-to-two-hour wait times during Saturday’s byelection were “unacceptable”
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Vancouver voters dealt a blow to Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC party Saturday, throwing their support behind two left-leaning candidates in a byelection that drew higher-than-normal turnout.
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Just before 1 a.m. Sunday, with 27 out of 27 polling stations reporting, Sean Orr of COPE and Lucy Maloney of OneCity led the other candidates by a wide margin, capturing 34,448 and 33,732 votes, respectively, according to unofficial results posted online.
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“I woke up and pinched myself, ” said Orr.
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Orr campaigned on a promise to, among other things, “fight to protect tenants from demovictions and exploitation” and “fight for fully funded and free public transit.” Maloney similarly said she would “strengthen the tenant protections that exist in the Broadway plan” and work to improve road and pedestrian safety in the city.
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Orr said it was clear voters were disenchanted with the “hubris” of Sim’s office, and ready to make their voices heard: “Citizens felt alienated by ABC’s lack of responsiveness and lack of integrity, running roughshod over our democratic institutions, firing the park board, pausing the work of the integrity commissioner, barely showing up to council meetings, increasing his (mayor’s office) budget to $1.5 million, (and) increasing property taxes while cutting services.”
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Orr said he expects a steep learning curve, but he’s ready for it.
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“I plan to report back to the people on everything I’m seeing and use my position for full accountability and transparency, advocate for workers and reverse the punitive and cruel ban on supportive housing.”
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Maloney said the byelection results were a decisive victory.
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“This election shows that the mayor is out of step with the people of Vancouver. Voters showed up for affordable housing and caring about their neighbours. I don’t think Ken Sim and ABC understand how pervasive the problem of affordable housing is.”
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Maloney said her first step will be to reestablish the City of Vancouver’s Renter Office, a tenants’ rights body abolished by ABC against the advice of city staff in 2023.
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Maloney, who said housing affordability was the No. 1 issue she heard about while door-knocking during the campaign, hopes ABC councillors will begin to vote with their conscience, rather than as a bloc.
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“This victory signals that voters want a truly vibrant city that makes sure our young people, our artists, our seniors can stay in our city,” she said.
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Colleen Hardwick of TEAM came in third with 17,352 votes, followed by Green candidate Annette Reilly with 15,045 votes and Theodore Abbott, also of TEAM, with 11,581 votes.
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ABC Vancouver had hoped to solidify its majority with candidates Jaime Stein and Ralph Kaisers, but Stein received only 9,267 votes and Kaisers garnered 8,915 votes.
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Stein said listening to diverse voices while campaigning for the byelection had deepened his commitment to public service and reinforced his belief that “collaborative, responsive governance is what our communities need.”
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“Vancouver faces significant challenges that transcend party lines, from housing affordability to community safety,” said Stein.
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While the ABC party still holds the balance of power on council with seven of 11 seats, the byelection results showed clear disenchantment with the ruling party, which won a landslide victory in the 2022 municipal election on a promise to fix a dysfunctional city hall and improve public safety.
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“This election was a referendum on Ken Sim and ABC. They were on the bottom,” said Hardwick.
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Although she called the results disappointing, personally, Hardwick said it’s just the beginning on the road to the next municipal election in 2026.
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“2026 is going to be an existential election for the City of Vancouver. We’ve got a majority council joined at the hip with developers. We need to manage growth so amenities, parks, schools grow in balance with development.”
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Just under 68,000 ballots were cast, representing a turnout of 15 per cent of registered voters, which is 40 per cent higher than for the 2017 byelection. An additional 5,430 ballots were cast by mail.
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“People were mad,” said Reilly, who plans to run again in 2026. “What I was hoping for was a show of democracy and that’s what happened. I’m really proud of the people of Vancouver for getting out there, showing up and waiting in those long lineups.”
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Vancouver’s byelection was marked by lineups of more than one to two or more hours at voting stations across the city.
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Once the voting stations closed at 8 p.m., anyone who was still in line got a chance to cast their ballot, according to a post from the city.
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Social media was flooded with comments about the lengthy queues.
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The elections office said it modelled its operations based on data from the previous two byelections, and this one had “significantly higher” voter turnout comparatively.
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After record voter turnout in advance polling, the office said it added 45 staff members to help with the expected turnout.
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In the lead-up to Saturday’s byelection, candidates running against ABC had dubbed the byelection a referendum on the performance of Vancouver’s reigning party and Mayor Ken Sim.
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The Greens, OneCity and COPE all attacked ABC as a party that serves the interests of the wealthy at the expense of everyone else, and described Sim as a leader distracted by things most people don’t want, like abolishing the park board and investing city money in bitcoin.
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Historically, homeowners are more likely to vote than renters, but observers predicted that there would be more tenants at the polls for one reason, the Broadway plan, which was designed to densify a roughly 500-block area along the Broadway corridor.
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Official results of this weekend’s byelection are expected April 9.
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Big turnout leads to ‘unacceptable’ waits
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Vancouver’s city manager acknowledged Sunday that wait times during Saturday’s byelection were “unacceptable.”
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Paul Mochrie issued a statement thanking municipal voters for the impressive turnout, with about 67,962 ballots cast.
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That represents a turnout of just over 15 per cent, which may sound relatively low but is a 40 per cent increase from the last byelection in 2017.
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“I want to thank each voter for your commitment to the democratic process and for the remarkable patience you demonstrated during long wait times experienced over the course of the day at many polling stations across the city.
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“Moreover, I want to acknowledge that voting wait times that many electors experienced yesterday were unacceptable.”
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He blamed the delays at many voting places on “flawed planning assumptions for this byelection that informed staff decisions and the plan presented to council.”
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He said the elections team did their best to execute the plan, but “it was clearly insufficient to accommodate the electorate in accessing an efficient voting process. These shortcomings are deeply regrettable and I apologize to all voters impacted by delays, as well as to candidates and civic parties.”
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Mochrie vowed to work with city staff “to ensure that lessons from yesterday’s byelection inform the planning and execution of the 2026 general municipal election and all future City of Vancouver election efforts.
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“The conduct of elections is one of our responsibilities as a local government that does not present a margin for error. Our role is to provide a voting process that is efficient, accessible, and reflective of the trust that voters and elected officials place in the civil service to support the electoral process.
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“We will do better moving forward.”
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With files from Dan Fumano, Joseph Ruttle and Tiffany Crawford
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