Pete Fry Beats Ken Sim to Become Vancouver's Next Mayor

Pete Fry of the Green Party defeated incumbent mayor Ken Sim in Vancouver's municipal election on Saturday, taking 39,689 votes, or 47.6 percent, against 27,894 votes, or 33.5 percent, for Sim and his ABC Vancouver party. The count put Fry 11,795 votes clear in an eight candidate race.

Polls closed at 8 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday, in one of 161 municipal elections held across British Columbia that day. CTV News reported in its election night live blog that Fry pulled ahead early with about twice as many votes as Sim, and that no ABC candidate sat among the leading council candidates in the early returns.

One progressive candidate left standing

The result turned on a decision the city's progressive parties made weeks before election day. Three progressives first announced mayoral runs: William Azaroff for OneCity, Stephanie Allen for COPE and Fry for the Greens. In early September, COPE ended its own mayoral campaign and urged its supporters to rally behind a single candidate. Azaroff then withdrew on September 8, saying the priority was to get Ken Sim out of office. Allen also stepped aside, and Fry went into election day as the only major progressive still on the ballot.

Fry, a city councillor since 2018, campaigned on the slogan "a city that works for you." A Justason Market Intelligence poll published on September 16 put him at 45 percent among decided voters, with Sim at 30 percent. Later polls tightened. A Leger poll for Postmedia in late September had Fry slightly ahead with more than a third of voters still undecided, and a poll reported by CityNews on October 9 called the race a dead heat.

The rest of the field

Colleen Hardwick of TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, a councillor from 2018 to 2022, finished third with 7,681 votes, or 9.2 percent. Kareem Allam, who managed Sim's winning 2022 campaign and then served as his chief of staff before starting the Vancouver Liberals, took 3,897 votes, or 4.7 percent. Rebecca Bligh, a councillor first elected with ABC in 2022 who was removed from the party after opposing Sim backed policies, including a ban on supportive housing, won 3,113 votes, or 3.7 percent, for Vote Vancouver. Muhammad Ahmad, Scott Gilbert and Amauri Caliman each took less than 1 percent.

Sim was elected in 2022, when he defeated incumbent mayor Kennedy Stewart and ABC won outright majorities on council, the park board and the school board. Voters on Saturday also chose 10 city councillors, seven park board commissioners and nine school board trustees, and answered capital plan questions and two plebiscite questions on public safety.

What voters said mattered

Reporters speaking to voters heard the same list again and again: affordability, housing, public safety and homelessness. Fry's platform promised thousands more affordable homes, including on public land, a restored renter's office and stronger tenant protections, along with pre-approved designs and faster permits for infill housing. Sim defended his record in office, which included faster permits, and promised to act on public safety.

Fry's win gives Vancouver a Green Party mayor backed by the parties that united behind him. How much of his platform he can pass will depend on the council seated alongside him.