It looked more like a game of Bingo than anything else, but in this case, the prize was top slot on the ballot for Vancouver’s upcoming civic election.
The city conducted a random draw on Friday to determine the order that candidates for mayor, council, park and school boards will appear on the city’s ballot sheets.
Vancouver city council voted in June to end the policy of putting candidates names on the ballot in alphabetical order over concerns that candidates with names that started with A, B and C had an advantage.
Independent mayoral candidate Jason Lamarche’s name was drawn first.
“It’s pretty important when you have a saturated ballot like we have now, with 21 names,” Lamarche told Global News after being picked to top the ballot.
“This does give me an advantage because the ballots are now going to be printed and promoted to all voters for the next 30 days, so that puts me at the top of voter’s minds.”
The new system of randomizing names has not been without controversy. The city is spending an extra $235,000 this year to try to address concerns the massive ballots will be confusing to voters.
Along with the nearly two dozen candidates for mayor, there are 71 city council candidates, 33 candidates for Park Board and a further 33 candidates for the Vancouver School Board.
READ MORE: Vancouver will now list election candidates randomly instead of alphabetically
Critics have raised concerns that the random order will make voting more difficult for people who have less proficiency in the English language.
While the names have now been placed in a random order, they will appear in that same order on all ballots.
In order to address concerns, the city is preparing sample ballots ahead of the vote which will appear soon on its website, in newspaper ads and at community centres and libraries next week.
This is the official order that names will appear on the City of Vancouver’s civic election ballots
Candidates for Mayor
- LAMARCHE, Jason
- HANSEN, Mike
- YANO, John
- CHEN, David (ProVancouver)
- SYLVESTER, Shauna
- AUBICHON, Maynard
- BUDAY, Gölök Z
- STEWART, Kennedy
- CASSIDY, Sean
- HARDING, Fred (VANCOUVER 1st)
- BREMNER, Hector (YES Vancouver)
- FOGAL, Connie (IDEA Vancouver)
- YOUNG, Wai (Coalition Vancouver)
- LE ROUGETEL, Katy
- KAISER, Sophia Cherryes Kaur
- LY, Tim
- MASSEY, Lawrence
- SIM, Ken (NPA)
- ROLLERGIRL
- CHAN, Ping
- SHOTTHA, Satie
Candidates for Councillor
- FRANSON, Marlo
- BOYLE, Christine (OneCity)
- BASRA, Nycki (VANCOUVER 1st)
- DE GENOVA, Melissa (NPA)
- TAYLOR, Elizabeth (VANCOUVER 1st)
- CROOK, Adrian
- FRY, Pete (GREEN)
- SPARK, John
- CAUDWELL, Justin
- RAUNET, Françoise
- BUCHANAN, Barbara
- KOUTALIANOS, Anastasia
- HARDWICK, Colleen (NPA)
- NOBLE, Penny
- LOW, Ken (VANCOUVER 1st)
- ROBERTS, Anne (COPE)
- CRELLIN, Breton (ProVancouver)
- PETA, Franco (Coalition Vancouver)
- ALM, Kelly
- EVANS, Catherine (Vision Vancouver)
- MIRZA, Raza (ProVancouver)
- DOMINATO, Lisa (NPA)
- BLIGH Rebecca (NPA)
- KRISTIANSEN, Lisa (ProVancouver)
- XIE, Jason (Coalition Vancouver)
- SHUM, Erin
- COOK, Graham
- VIRDI, Jaspreet (YES Vancouver)
- MUSSIO, Penny (Coalition Vancouver)
- MIEDZYGORSKI, Herschel
- HUGHES, Ashley
- GOODRICH, Justin P (NPA)
- EL-RAYES, Hamdy
- QUIMPO, Jojo (NPA)
- LIN, James (Coalition Vancouver)
- PAZ, Tanya (Vision Vancouver)
- BAINS Brinder (YES Vancouver)
- MALUSA, John (VANCOUVER 1st)
- TANG, Phyllis (YES Vancouver)
- KIRBY-YUNG, Sarah (NPA)
- GREWAL, David (NPA)
- CHARKO, Ken (Coalition Vancouver)
- GRANT, Wade
- JOHL, Jesse (VANCOUVER 1st)
- SWANSON, Jean (COPE)
- SPIKE
- PEROSA, Elishia (VANCOUVER 1st)
- FALLS, Larry
- BHANDAL, Taqdir Kaur
- FU, Hsin-Chen
- KENNEDY, Gordon T
- MOLLINEAUX, Michelle (VANCOUVER 1st)
- COPELAND, Cord “Ted”
- BLYTH, Sarah
- MCDOWELL, Rob
- CARDONA, Diego (Vision Vancouver)
- CHERNEN, Glen (Coalition Vancouver)
- RAMDEEN, Katherine
- O’KEEFE, Derrick (COPE)
- LI, Morning (Coalition Vancouver)
- PORTER, Elke
- ZHANG, Wei Qiao (Vision Vancouver)
- WONG, David HT (GREEN)
- KHAN, Abubakar
- YAN, Brandon 甄念本 (OneCity)
- CARR, Adriane (GREEN)
- OSTLER, Stephanie (YES Vancouver)
- WIEBE, Michael (GREEN)
- CHAN, Glynnis (YES Vancouver)
- REZEL, Rohana (ProVancouver)
- DEAL, Heather (Vision Vancouver)
Candidates for Park Commissioner
- ZARUDINA, Olga (Coalition Vancouver)
- DEMERS, David (GREEN)
- BARKER, Tricia (NPA)
- HAMILTON, Jamie Lee (IDEA Vancouver)
- ROSSETTI, Massimo (VANCOUVER 1st)
- NEMETZ, Steven L
- FUOCO, Chris (VANCOUVER 1st)
- MALDONADO, Juan Carlos (Coalition Vancouver)
- GALLOWAY, Jason (Coalition Vancouver)
- SANGHA, Taran Kaur (Coalition Vancouver)
- COUPAR, John (NPA)
- MCGARRIGLE, Kathy (NPA)
- HEBA, Leo (YES Vancouver)
- RELPH, Cliff
- SIU, Winnie (Coalition Vancouver)
- BEESLA, Pall (NPA)
- CRAWFORD, Casey (NPA)
- SHIVJI, Shamim (Vision Vancouver)
- GOLDENCHILD, Ray (VANCOUVER 1st)
- YEUNG, Jennifer (VANCOUVER 1st)
- COPPING, Ann-Marie (NPA)
- KAGIS, Matthew (Work Less Party)
- HURLBUT, Rick (ProVancouver)
- CUEVAS, Victor
- ZUBKO, Cameron (Vision Vancouver)
- GIESBRECHT, Gwen (COPE)
- JOHL, Yogi (VANCOUVER 1st)
- IRWIN, John (COPE)
- DUMONT, Camil (GREEN)
- EDGELOW, Greg (ProVancouver)
- HAUGEN, Margaret (IDEA Vancouver)
- MACKINNON, Stuart (GREEN)
- CHANG, Ray En-Jui (Coalition Vancouver)
Candidates for School Trustee
- DESCÔTEAUX, Stéphanie (VANCOUVER 1st)
- REDDY, Jennifer (OneCity)
- KINDRID, Tiffiny (ProVancouver)
- PRIETO, Julian (YES Vancouver)
- GOODINE, Nadine C (Coalition Vancouver)
- FRASER, Janet (GREEN)
- BERCIC, Carrie (OneCity)
- RICHARDSON, Christopher JK (NPA)
- ALM, Kelly
- HANSON, Oliver (NPA)
- GILL, Pratpal Kaur (VANCOUVER 1st)
- GONZALEZ, Estrellita (GREEN)
- MRS DOUBTFIRE
- KENNEDY, Gordon T
- JAAF, Erica (OneCity)
- QIU, Chris (NPA)
- CHO, Carmen (NPA)
- BARONET, Bruno (VANCOUVER 1st)
- ANDERSON, BK Barbara (IDEA Vancouver)
- PARROTT, Barb (COPE)
- LEE, Marco (VANCOUVER 1st)
- WOO, Sophia (Coalition Vancouver)
- LEUNG, Aaron (Vision Vancouver)
- ZHOU, Ying (Coalition Vancouver)
- DENIKE Ken (Coalition Vancouver)
- WONG, Allan (Vision Vancouver)
- DONG, Tony (VANCOUVER 1st)
- CHAN-PEDLEY, Lois (GREEN)
- BALLANTYNE, Fraser (NPA)
- DAY, Diana (COPE)
- ARNOLD, Erin (Vision Vancouver)
- OGER, Morgane
- FARROKHI, Fairnia
-With files from Richard Zussman
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