Election report · City Hall
Vancouver's election so far: early votes and harder choices
Record advance voting, specific choices from three municipal debates, and what candidates told Side Street before Saturday’s vote.
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More than 103,000 Vancouver voters have already cast an advance ballot. For everyone still deciding, the final municipal voting day is Saturday, October 17. There are candidates to compare, debates to catch up on and five ballot questions that deserve a look before joining the queue.
The City's preliminary advance count is already more than 58% above the 65,127 advance ballots it reports for 2022. It is also more than 60% of the 171,494 voters who participated in the entire 2022 municipal election. We calculated those comparisons from the City's figures. They do not tell us this year's final turnout or who is winning.
Vancity Lookout has reported on the advance-voting surge. The useful question for the remaining campaign is what voters are being offered on the decisions the next Council will actually make.
What the debates put on the table
The full October 5 CKNW mayoral debate runs about 48 minutes. Its housing discussion, starting at 24:21, makes the choices more concrete. The table links to the start of each candidate's answer.
| Candidate | Housing approach | Watch from |
|---|---|---|
| Kareem Allam | Adopt the provincial building code; consolidate housing approvals in one department. | 25:01 |
| Rebecca Bligh | Use City land to attract government investment in non-market housing; speed up housing on faith-owned land. | 26:20 |
| Colleen Hardwick | Replace the official development plan with neighbourhood planning; match growth to infrastructure. | 27:52 |
| Pete Fry | Four-to-six-storey wood-frame housing, public housing on City land and housing bonds. | 29:28 |
| Ken Sim | More supply through faster permits; harmonize Vancouver's building rules with the provincial code. | 31:04 |
The public-safety discussion starts at 12:08. Sim put stronger drug-use bylaws and pressure for care beds at the centre of his response. Fry proposed non-police outreach; Bligh emphasized housing and treatment. Hardwick paired neighbourhood policing with treatment pathways, while Allam focused on organized crime and its financial infrastructure. These are their proposed approaches, not evidence that a programme has worked.
At the September 8 UBC housing debate, another difference emerged around 1:23:00. Asked what to seek from developers when viable projects can make contributions, Allam, Bligh and Fry chose cash. Fry attached conditions about its use. Hardwick favoured dedicated affordability. Agreement that Vancouver needs affordable homes still leaves a choice about how the City secures them.
The October 14 accountability forum offers something to track after the election. During the lobbyist-registry discussion, starting at 57:42, Allam, OneCity's Frances Bula, Green candidate Camil Dumont, Hardwick and COPE's Sean Orr all supported a registry. Orr cautioned that it should preserve access for ordinary community groups. Earlier, Bula and Dumont argued for public engagement well before a project reaches its final hearing.
What candidates told Side Street
Our questionnaire comparison includes eight personal candidate replies and four separate official party replies. All eight personal respondents, and all four party respondents, support allowing more low-rise apartments in residential neighbourhoods and small shops and cafés away from existing shopping streets.
| Question | Personal candidates | Official parties |
|---|---|---|
| More low-rise apartments | 8 of 8 support | 4 of 4 support |
| Neighbourhood shops and cafés | 8 of 8 support | 4 of 4 support |
| Reallocate traffic lanes for frequent buses | 7 support; 1 oppose | Not summarised here |
| Freeze the general property-tax levy in 2027 | Not summarised here | 2 support; 2 oppose |
That leaves plenty to decide. Andy Lin points to main roads and intersections. Devyani Singh calls for tenant protections. Steve Jedreicich stresses consultation. The written explanations show how similar selections can lead to different plans for a neighbourhood.
Taxes produce a clearer split. ABC Vancouver and TrueBlue Vancouver strongly support freezing the City's general property-tax levy in 2027. OneCity strongly opposes it; Vote Vancouver opposes it. On reallocating traffic lanes for frequent buses, seven of the eight personal respondents agree or strongly agree. Noi Soudarack disagrees. These are the replies we received, rather than a survey of the whole ballot.
Scott Gilbert's separate written response
Gilbert sent us written positions on October 2. He supports non-profit and co-op partnerships and long leases of public land, with faster approvals paired with tenant protection and accessible design. On budgets, he calls for published costs and service results and does not promise a permanent tax freeze. He expressly asked that these positions be treated as a partial written response. We have kept them outside the 16-statement comparison.
The other decisions on the ballot
The City's three borrowing questions seek authority for $790 million: $292 million for transportation and streets, $438 million for community and civic infrastructure, and $60 million for parks and open spaces.
We asked the City what a No vote on the proposed street borrowing would mean. In an October 6 email, it said staff would review the affected investments and develop a revised scope and funding strategy. Work could be deferred or reduced, with required changes brought to Council. That answer does not identify particular projects that would be delayed.
The two plebiscites are on a separate ballot. They concern restrictions on public hard-drug use and a request to the Province for a secure medical facility. They are non-binding: a result does not itself change a law.
For Park Board choices, the Burrardview Community Association's separate questionnaire is a useful additional resource. Read the full responses alongside its original questions and background.
Saturday, and the count afterward
Voting runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 85 City voting places. Anyone in line at closing can vote. Completed mail ballots must be received by the deadline, so use the City's current drop-box instructions.
The City says election returns will start after voting closes. Plebiscite ballots will be counted later, with those results due by October 21. The B.C. provincial election has its own voting places and an October 24 final voting day.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| October 17, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Municipal voting at any of the 85 City voting places. People in line at closing can vote. |
| October 17, after voting closes | Preliminary municipal election returns begin. |
| By October 21 | The City expects the separate plebiscite results. |
| October 24 | Provincial final voting day, with separate ballots and locations. |
Start with the candidate replies, then make a plan for Saturday.
Sources and reporting
Turnout figures and voting instructions are from the City's October 15 update and its official 2022 results declaration. The growth calculation uses 103,000 as a lower bound. More than 21,000 requests for mail packages are not counted as returned ballots and are excluded. We reviewed the UBC and CKNW recordings through their published captions, and the October 14 forum through a locally generated working transcript. Proposals are paraphrased, with recording times given above; campaign claims about crime, staffing and costs are not treated as established facts. Questionnaire selections and explanations are from direct replies to Side Street. Gilbert's separate positions and the City's October 6 borrowing answer were supplied by email.
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