COPE, One-City, secure council seats in Vancouver’s municipal byelection

VANCOUVER — Vancouver’s left-of-centre parties have secured two council seats in Saturday’s municipal byelection in a vote that was seen as a litmus test for Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC party, which swept to dominance in 2022.

All 27 polls reported after midnight that COPE represented by Sean Orr received the most votes 34,448 votes, while Lucy Maloney of OneCity was just behind him with 33,732 votes.

Almost 68,000 ballots were cast, and the City of Vancouver issued a statement saying voter turnout was nearly 15.1 per cent, reflecting a 40 per cent increase from a byelection held in 2017.

It says 5,430 ballots were cast by mail, about eight per cent of the voter turnout.

Sim’s ABC party candidates, Jaime Stein and Ralph Kaisers, came in sixth and seventh respectively.

The byelection was called to replace Green Party’s Adriane Carr and OneCity’s Christine Boyle, who’s now an elected member of the provincial legislature.

Orr is a housing advocate who said during his election campaign he’d fight to protect renters, while Maloney is an environmental lawyer and highlighted improved road and pedestrian safety in the city.

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, which ran two candidates for council in the byelection, said in a statement on Saturday that voters had to wait too long to vote.

Party spokesperson Sal Robinson said “it’s outrageous to ask voters to wait an hour or more to exercise their democratic right to vote — and that some people take one look at the length of the lines and simply walk away.”

The party said it was gathering evidence to file an official complaint over the lack of adequate staffing and resources for this byelection.

“This poor planning for voting stations is demonstrably discouraging people from exercising their democratic right to vote,” Robinson said in the statement.

City manager Paul Mochrie said in a statement on Sunday that the wait times that many voters experienced were “unacceptable,” which reflected flawed planning assumptions for this byelection.

“These shortcomings are deeply regrettable and I apologize to all voters impacted by delays, as well as to candidates and civic parties,” Mochrie said, adding that he and his staff are committed to ensuring lessons learned from this byelection will help inform planning for the city’s 2026 municipal election.

The City of Vancouver’s election office says it “appreciates Vancouverites’ commitment to participating in the byelection and the patience they are demonstrating when voting.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2025.

The Canadian Press