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Vancouver mayor says party will take a ‘hard look’ inward after byelection losses

Click to play video: 'Vancouver voters choose 2 progressive city councillors in byelection'
Vancouver voters choose 2 progressive city councillors in byelection
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says he has 'no regrets' about his party's candidates in Saturday's byelection, which say the ABC supermajority reduced to a one-vote majority on the council. Sarah MacDonald reports. – Apr 7, 2025

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says his ABC Vancouver party will take a “hard look” inward after voters decisively rejected its two candidates in a weekend byelection.

Voters braved hours-long lineups on Saturday to cast ballots in a byelection to replace two city councillors.

COPE’s Sean Orr and OneCity’s Lucy Maloney were elected, each drawing close to 50 per cent of the vote, about double the tally of their nearest challenger, Colleen Hardwick with TEAM.

ABC Vancouver’s two candidates, tech entrepreneur Jamie Stein and Vancouver Police Union president Ralph Kaisers, finished sixth and seventh with 13.6 per cent and 13.1 per cent of the vote respectively.

“We approach everything from a place of love and compassion and doing the right thing and we can do better — the last thing we want to do is have a city that is divided or people feel they are not being heard or they are not coming along for the ride,” Sim said.

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“Obviously, regardless of how we feel or the accomplishments we have made, there are people in the city that don’t feel that way, and that’s definitely not the intent, so yeah we are taking a really hard look as to why people feel that way and what we can do to be better.”

Click to play video: 'Vancouver byelection results'
Vancouver byelection results

Orr and Maloney have both said voters sent ABC — whose majority on council was unaffected by the byelection — a clear message that they’re unhappy with how the mayor’s party is running the city and key issues, including homelessness, housing and affordability.

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ABC has also faced criticism over its attempt to abolish the Vancouver Park Board despite campaigning on keeping it, and attempts to restrict the integrity commissioner’s role and to end a city ban on installing natural gas for heating and hot water in new builds.

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“The new stuff that’s come along, yeah, you know what, we can re-assess and you know take a hard look as to how things unfolded and how we can do better,” Sim said.

“We’ve talked about having a united city, one that’s amazing for everyone. So, regardless, obviously that isn’t 100 per cent the case right now, and that wasn’t the intention.”

Sim said he had “no regrets” about the party’s choice of candidates, describing Stein and Kaisers as men “of high character and quality” who would have served the city well.

He said he had yet to speak to Maloney or Orr, but told reporters he valued a “diversity of thought” on council.

On Sunday, Vancouver’s city manager, Paul Mochrie, issued a public apology for how the byelection was administered.

Click to play video: 'Vancouver byelection advance voting sees record turnout'
Vancouver byelection advance voting sees record turnout

The vote saw turnout of 15.09 per cent, a 40 per cent increase over the city’s last byelection in 2017.

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“I want to acknowledge that voting wait times that many electors experienced yesterday were unacceptable. The extended wait times at many voting places reflected flawed planning assumptions for this by-election that informed staff decisions and the plan presented to Council,” Mochrie said in a statement.

“These shortcomings are deeply regrettable and I apologize to all voters impacted by delays, as well as to candidates and civic parties.”

Mochrie said the city was committed to using the lessons learned from the byelection to better prepare for the upcoming 2026 municipal election.

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