Fry and Sim face off in Vancouver mayoral race as other candidates reject spoiler label

Vancouver mayoral candidates Ken Sim and Pete Fry each see the other as their main rival in the race for City Hall. Recent polls suggest the contest is largely between incumbent Sim and Fry, a two-term Green councillor, but three other prominent candidates reject the spoiler label.

Kareem Allam, Sim’s former chief of staff and now a litigation adversary, is running with the Vancouver Liberals, which is not affiliated with the federal party. In an interview Tuesday, Allam said pollsters do not always get it right and municipal elections are the hardest level to poll, particularly under an at-large system with its own tricks and nuances.

Municipalities across British Columbia vote Saturday, bringing the Vancouver race to a close. The City of Vancouver says more than 103,000 people have voted in advance, up 60 per cent from roughly 65,000 voters over five advance-voting days in 2022. Interest in the race appears high.

Sim is seeking a second term with the right-of-centre ABC Vancouver. In an interview Wednesday, he said he would be the first to admit he had not got everything right during his tenure, but believes he can lead the city in the right direction. “We’ve gotten some pretty significant things done, but there’s way more work to do,” he said.

Other candidates include two-term councillor Rebecca Bligh, who helped elect Sim with ABC Vancouver in 2022 and is now running with Vote Vancouver, and former councillor Colleen Hardwick, the TEAM candidate. Allam, Hardwick and Bligh rejected the idea that their campaigns could split the centre or centre-right vote.

“The question is not left or right. The question is about who we are serving at city hall,” Hardwick said Tuesday. Bligh said she was running to govern for Vancouver’s ignored middle class and that polling had not changed her campaign. “It’s anyone’s race,” she said Wednesday.

Fry, the son of longtime Liberal MP Hedy Fry, acknowledged that he benefited as the progressive field narrowed after William Azaroff of OneCity Vancouver and Stephanie Allen of COPE Vancouver withdrew. After ending his candidacy, Azaroff appeared at City Hall with Fry, who praised him for running a serious campaign that raised real issues, including housing, small business and affordability.

“I think folks are excited to be able to talk up a viable alternative to Ken Sim as the mayor of Vancouver and really reset,” Fry said Tuesday. He added that Azaroff’s withdrawal recognized him as the candidate best suited to defeat Sim. Bligh described herself as a progressive candidate with a centrist platform, while Allam said he believed he was taking votes equally from Sim and Fry.

All the candidates’ platforms emphasize quality-of-life issues, including affordability and public safety. Sim has promised a zero per cent property tax increase. The ballot also includes two non-binding plebiscite questions on public safety. One asks whether voters support the city “strengthening its laws to forbid open-air hard drug use in public spaces,” which is already illegal in B.C. The other asks whether the city should ask the province to convert part of the former St. Paul’s hospital into a “secure medical facility” with more than 100 involuntary-care beds. Hardwick called the questions a “populist election tactic,” while other critics said they are unrealistic.

Sim said strengthening the city’s health bylaw, which regulates conduct such as smoking in common areas, would let officers issue tickets or confiscate drugs without making arrests. He said the involuntary-care question is a request for the province to meet its accountability to people who pose a risk to their own safety or that of others. Fry supports managing drug use in public spaces, but said people should instead be diverted to supervised consumption sites or shelters.

Fry’s platform focuses on housing, transportation and the economy. “Folks should be able to have a good life in this city,” he said. Bligh said Sim’s property tax freezes protect wealthy landowners and undercut critical services. She said she would work with the federal government to make use of city-owned land and provide free transit for youth. Hardwick said effective city planning is key to Vancouver’s liveability; she wants to repeal the city’s official development plan and re-establish neighbourhood planning offices. Allam said he wants to bring young people back to Vancouver by improving affordability through jobs and housing, and investing in parks and community centres.

Allam said his platform crosses ideological lines and distanced himself from Sim, who filed a lawsuit in May 2025 alleging that Allam falsely accused him of drinking and driving. Sim also faces a defamation lawsuit from councillor Sean Orr, filed after Sim falsely accused Orr in comments to Chinese-speaking reporters of distributing illegal drugs. Trials in both cases are far off.

For now, the focus is on the ballot box. “I think people will be surprised at the results,” Allam said.