Why Vancouver's 2026 municipal election could feel like a test

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Allam came out more forcefully against the St. Paul’s proposal, saying he doesn’t want “a prison in my downtown core.”

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Sim said ABC will respect the will of the people if voters reject the plebiscite, but the party expects “an overwhelmingly positive return.”

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In the campaign’s final days, all seven major Vancouver parties were touting endorsements from labour groups, business leaders, and municipal, provincial and federal politicians past and present.

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One endorsement that was newsworthy in 2022 and notable for its absence this time around was the Vancouver Police Union. Four years ago, the VPU broke with decades of tradition to make a political endorsement, publicly backing ABC and Sim. This time around, the union decided against endorsing any party.

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The Vancouver Fire Fighters union chose not to endorse anyone for mayor, or any member of council’s current ABC majority, instead endorsing only five council candidates from three other parties: OneCity’s Lucy Maloney and Frances Bula; the Greens’ Annette Reilly and Camil Dumont; and Vote Vancouver’s Rebecca Hasdell.

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ABC did, however, draw endorsements from some prominent business leaders, including Amar Doman, B.C. Lions owner and Futura Corp. founder; CAI Capital Partners’ Tracey McVicar; and Fiore Group CEO Frank Giustra (which comes despite Giustra’s public criticism of Sim’s 2024 proposal to invest taxpayer money in cryptocurrency, a move the mining magnate called “reckless and stupid.”)

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Mike Harcourt, former Vancouver mayor and B.C. premier, and ex-councillor Geoff Meggs previously supported OneCity mayoral nominee William Azaroff, who dropped out of the race in early September, as part of a deal between OneCity, the Greens, and COPE, to rally behind a single “unity” mayoral candidate for the left, which ended up being Fry. But after Azaroff’s withdrawal, Harcourt and Meggs didn’t throw their support behind Fry, instead announcing on Oct. 2 they would back Bligh.

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In a joint statement along with former Non-Partisan Association councillor Peter Ladner, the trio said: “On plenty of issues, we still disagree. On this one, we don’t. Rebecca Bligh is the best choice to be Vancouver’s next mayor.”

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Bligh has said this key cross-partisan endorsement, as well as public support of other left-wing politicos, challenges the idea that voters who identify as progressive or left-leaning are necessarily supporting Fry as a consensus candidate.

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Meanwhile, Allam and the Liberals say the diversity of their support reflects the “big tent” coalition they’ve built. That includes local hotel worker’s union Unite Here, former NPA councillor Elizabeth Ball, prominent B.C. NDP-ers like Michelle Mungall and Arminder Randhawa, and ex-Liberal MP Joyce Murray.

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Fry and the Greens have been endorsed by federal and provincial NDP politicians like Jenny Kwan, Libby Davies and Melanie Mark, among others.

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Recent polling, including Leger’s poll conducted for Postmedia News between Sept. 23 and 30, found Vancouver residents in an especially dissatisfied mood. While just over half of Metro Vancouver residents believed their city was on the “wrong track,” negative sentiment was particularly pronounced in Vancouver, where 62 per cent said the same thing. While that high desire for change usually could often spell doom for an incumbent mayor and party, Vancouver’s crowded field with five party-backed mayoral candidates could enable Sim and ABC to win a second term with far less support than their overwhelming mandate from 2022.