Vancouver’s Centrist Parties Remain in the Mayoral Race

Days after two mayoral candidates stood in Helena Gutteridge Plaza at Vancouver City Hall and announced they were dropping out of the election, Coun. Rebecca Bligh pulled a bit of a switcheroo.

Less than 24 hours after OneCity’s William Azaroff made his concession speech on Tuesday, and a week after former Coalition of Progressive Electors or COPE mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen’s similar announcement, Bligh issued a press release asking news media to join her at the plaza. Bligh is running for mayor under a new party called Vote Vancouver.

But far from stepping down to avoid vote splitting among the five major parties still in the mayoral race, Bligh and the Vote Vancouver candidates were there to announce their party platform for the Oct. 17 civic elections.

Bligh, whose party shares similarities with the Vancouver Liberals and TEAM for a Livable Vancouver in terms of pledging non-partisan and centrist values and policies, made it clear she has no plans to drop out of the race. As did the Vancouver Liberals’ mayoral candidate, Kareem Allam, and TEAM’s mayoral candidate, Colleen Hardwick, who also came to the plaza on Wednesday to speak to news media.

“This is a launch; this is not a farewell tour,” Bligh said, adding that Vote Vancouver’s campaign was “just getting started.” Party pledges include building non-market housing on city-owned land, opening more child-care centres in public schools, free public transit for everyone under age 18, and opening city hall hubs in community centres to ease seniors’ access to city services.

Bligh, who is in her eighth year on council and her third political party, called the three progressive parties’ decision to run only one mayoral candidate a “manufactured narrative.”

Pressed by reporters with questions about vote splitting among Vote Vancouver, TEAM and the Vancouver Liberals, Bligh refused to consider a scenario where she would step down in order to ensure incumbent Mayor Ken Sim is not re-elected. (As Azaroff stepped down on Tuesday, both he and Allen were supportive of Green Party of Vancouver mayoral candidate Pete Fry, although they stopped short of endorsing him, citing Elections BC rules.)

“For us, non-partisan means working collaboratively, working cross-partisan with other groups on council. We’re fully prepared for not having a dominating force at city council for making decisions,” Bligh said, adding that partisanship to her is having connections to other political parties, citing the Vancouver Liberals’ implied connection to the federal Liberal Party of Canada as an example.

“We think we have the platform and the team that Vancouverites are looking for,” Bligh said. She added she is looking forward to the first voter poll after Labour Day for a more accurate read of voters’ intentions.

Polls released earlier this summer showed more support for Allam and Hardwick than for Bligh, but also that one-quarter to one-third of poll respondents remained undecided.

Allam told news media that his party is a coalition of federal and provincial Liberals, Conservatives and New Democratic Party members. The party’s platform so far includes reversing the current ban on some supportive-housing developments — as Bligh tried to do earlier this year. The platform also stresses fiscal responsibility, transparency and accountability at city hall, and cracking down on money laundering and Bitcoin ATMs in the city.

Like Bligh, Allam isn’t concerned about splitting the vote with Vote Vancouver or TEAM.

“I don’t believe in vote splitting,” he said, adding that he believes voters are more aware “than people give them credit for.”

A veteran political campaign leader for ABC, the Canadian Alliance party, former Surrey mayor Dianne Watts and former BC United leader Kevin Falcon, Allam credited his prior campaign successes to refusing to believe in the low-information voter.

“I believe that voters understand what they’re voting for, that they pay a lot more attention than the media and public give them credit for,” Allam said. “And that’s why I think on election night that the Vancouver Liberals will come across first on the finish line.”

Colleen Hardwick is the only candidate of the three who has run for mayor before. Like Bligh, Hardwick is a former Non-Partisan Association or NPA councillor who left the party to sit as an independent in 2021. Hardwick came in third place in the 2022 mayoral race behind Sim and then-incumbent mayor Kennedy Stewart. She gathered about 16,700 votes compared with over 89,000 for Sim and roughly 50,000 for Stewart.

Like Bligh and Allam, Hardwick doesn’t believe vote splitting is a risk for TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, which is also a coalition of candidates “from across the political spectrum,” Hardwick said.

“I hear ‘vote splitting’ in every single election,” she said, adding she has heard from many voters who regret voting for Sim instead of her in the 2022 election.

“Ultimately, how do you win elections? You win the most votes. And how do you get the most votes? You get it by connecting with people. And my hope is that, combined with the background knowledge and experience behind it, will persuade people that the right decision is to vote for me as mayor and TEAM,” Hardwick said.

TEAM’s major platform pledges include repealing and replacing the city’s official development plan, re-establishing public hearings for new developments, and bringing residents’ input back into city planning by re-establishing neighbourhood planning offices.

“We are laser focused on livability, and livability means quality of life, of housing balanced with infrastructure... but ultimately affordability, because if we can’t afford to live here, what’s the point?” Hardwick asked.

Vote Vancouver’s Bligh rejected any notion that she and Sim have similar politics, as they have both run with the now-defunct NPA, as well as successfully with ABC.

After a successful 2018 election, Bligh left the NPA in 2019 out of concern over what she characterized as the party’s “far-right” turn. She ran successfully with ABC under Sim in 2022, but after high-profile votes against the party’s position on reversing the natural gas ban in residential builds and pausing the work of the city’s integrity commissioner, Bligh was kicked out of ABC in early 2025.

“I am not with ABC and have not been for many years,” Bligh said, adding that both the NPA and ABC ran on platforms of fiscal responsibility and social progressivism but abandoned those values after they were elected.

“We need somebody who knows how to manage city hall fiscally. Not to keep the wealthy wealthy, but to make the most out of every tax dollar we get. And the reason I know how to do that is because I know what it’s like to not have a lot of money,” Bligh said.