The Ubyssey’s explainer to the Vancouver City Hall by-election

On April 5, eligible Vancouverites — including those who live on campus — will have the opportunity to vote in the Vancouver by-election to fill two vacant seats on City Council.

The Ubyssey created this short explainer of how municipal policies affect students, who's running as well as some context on what City Council has been up to prior to the election.

This isn’t to tell you who to vote for but hopefully this can be a starting point in making that call yourself. You can find more information on how to vote here.

How might municipal politics affect you?

Municipal politics deals mostly with housing and property, city services and bylaws. City Council’s authority also extends to matters like policing and fire services, public libraries, renter protection and more.

Who is running?

Municipal politics in Vancouver, like federal and provincial politics, has political parties, but unlike the other two, they aren’t as obviously named or stable, meaning it can be kind of confusing to navigate. Here is a short description of each party and their stances.

ABC Vancouver

ABC Vancouver has held power since 2022, led by Mayor Ken Sim and holds a majority in City Hall. ABC councillors and the Mayor ran on a platform to hire more police officers and mental health nurses, and while in office, the City Council opted not to increase the city’s ‘empty house tax’ while providing tax exemptions for developers. The ABC caucus has also faced internal turmoil, with the Chair of the Vancouver School Board resigning from the party, half the party’s councillors on the Park Board doing the same and one of their councillors being removed from the party — all due to varying disagreements about the political direction of ABC.

ABC is running two candidates: Raph Kaisers, a police union leader, and Jamie Stein, a former BC United nominee for the Vancouver-Langara seat in the provincial legislature prior to the party ending its campaign.

TEAM for a livable Vancouver

TEAM is a party led by former city councillor Colleen Hardwick, who ran for Mayor and placed third in the 2022 municipal election. While on council, an analysis by the CBC identified that Hardwick almost all of the major contentious proposals brought forward at City Council during her tenure, including voting against the Broadway Plan and Vancouver Plan. Instead, Hardwick and TEAM advocate for an approach to housing that puts “neighbourhoods at the heart “of city planning, favouring the use of non-market and market housing and stabilizing land values by ending what the party calls “inflationary and disruptive spot rezonings that ignore neighbourhood plans without contributing to community amenities.”

TEAM is running two candidates: Hardwick and Theodore Abbott, a newcomer to Vancouver politics with a background in urban studies.

Green Party of Vancouver

The focus of the Vancouver Greens’ campaign is on Ken Sim — and specifically on reversing some of his major policy moves. This includes restoring the Renters’ Office — which aimed to provide resources and information to renters in the city — that was closed by Council in early 2023, and reversing the temporary freeze on supportive housing. The Green Party supports adopting the “3-30-300 rule” in Vancouver, which would mean ensuring the are at least 3 visible trees for each home, 30 per cent canopy coverage for every neighbourhood and green space not more than 300 metres from their residence.

One of the two open seats in this by-election is a result of the resignation of former Green city councillor and environmental activist Adrienne Carr, who had served since 2011 and was also a key supporter of former mayor Stuart Kennedy's administration, having backed his government in tandem with OneCity and COPE.

The Green Party is running one candidate: Annette Rielly.

OneCity Vancouver

OneCity Vancouver is an urbanist political party that focuses on changing zoning laws as well as protecting renters. OneCity’s housing platform centres on the fight for “more housing, in every neighbourhood in the city,” and like other parties, wants to bring back the Renters’ Office — but with a modification. OneCity supports transforming the office into a new “Tenant Advocacy Office” with the additional mandate of monitoring developers’ compliance and and imposing penalties when required.

The current by-election was called after OneCity councillor Christine Boyle was elected MLA as the NDP’s candidate for Vancouver-Little Mountain.

The current by-election was called due to former OneCity councillor Christine Boyle being elected as MLA for the NDP.

OneCity is running one Candidate: Lucy Maloney, a road safety activist,

COPE — Coalition of Progressive Electors

COPE positions itself against money in politics, citing Chip Wilson's investment to the ABC campaign. Like the other progressive parties, COPE wants to reinstate the Renters Office. It also wants to invest in the Vancouver Public Library, recreation facilities and childcare. On housing, the party wants Vancouver to follow Montreal’s lead and have the municipal government buy apartments to create low-cost housing. COPE would also re-direct investment from ABC’s priorities — like increasing police funding — in order to achieve their priorities.

COPE have not had any representatives in city hall since 2022 — with their last councillor being anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson from 2018-2022

COPE is running one Candidate: Sean Orr,who is also a contributor at the Scout Magazine. He ran for city council in 2022 as a candidate for VOTE Socialist.