Note: An updated official list of all 137 candidates running in the Oct. 15 election is available here.
Candidates running for a Vancouver city council seat continue to emerge as the Oct. 15 election draws closer and political parties prepare to ramp up their respective campaigns in what is expected to be a hotly contested race.
With so many parties vying for representation at city hall, and many of them already having secured their roster, Vancouver Is Awesome has compiled a list of mayoral and council candidates for voters.
Some names will be familiar, others won’t.
As reported in January, Mayor Kennedy Stewart and all 10 current councillors are seeking re-election, although four — Sarah Kirby-Yung, Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato and Colleen Hardwick — left the NPA and joined new parties since being elected in 2018.
Stewart has also created Forward Together and will run under that banner instead of as an independent, as he did in 2018. He has yet to announce any council candidates, but said in December that he had secured two people.
The candidate nomination period runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 9.
As of June 1, here’s who has publicly announced their intentions to either run for mayor or council:
Mayoral contest
• Kennedy Stewart (incumbent, Forward Together)
• Colleen Hardwick (TEAM for a Livable Vancouver)
• Ken Sim (A Better City, or ABC)
• John Coupar (NPA)
• Mark Marissen (Progress Vancouver)
• Golok Buday (independent or Vancouver Classic Liberal Association or BC Libertarian)
• Francoise Raunet (independent)
Council race
• Incumbents Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato and Sarah Kirby-Yung have joined ABC and will run with Brian Montague, Peter Meiszner and Lenny Zhou.
• Incumbents Adriane Carr, Pete Fry and Michael Wiebe of the Green Party have added Devyani Singh and Stephanie Smith to their roster.
• Incumbent Melissa De Genova remains the only NPA councillor from the 2018 vote and will seek re-election on a ballot that includes Cinnamon Bhayani, Elaine Allan, Ken Charko, Mauro Francis and Arezo Zarrabian.
• Incumbent Christine Boyle of OneCity seeks to retain her seat and be joined by Matthew Norris, Iona Bonamis and Ian Cromwell.
• Incumbent Jean Swanson of COPE will seek a second term and be joined on the ballot by Breen Ouellette, Nancy Trigueros and Tanya Webking.
• Vision Vancouver, which dominated city hall for a decade until 2018, looks to win back representation on council with Lesli Boldt, Honieh Barzegari, Stuart Mackinnon and Kishone Roy.
'Vote socialist'
Meanwhile, Hardwick’s TEAM for a Livable Vancouver and Marissen’s Progress Vancouver have yet to name council candidates but are expected to sometime this month.
Vote Socialist, another new party, has not named any candidates, but its website says a policy conference will occur June 11, followed by candidate nominations June 26.
In the 2018 election, 21 people ran for mayor and 71 for council.
Winners will serve a four-year term.
The time commitment to serve is estimated between 30 and 55 hours per week, according to the city’s website, which also lists salaries for mayor ($185,000 this year) and councillors ($92,000 this year).
Nine positions for school trustee and seven for park board commissioner will also be up for grabs Oct. 15.
Note: This story has been updated since first posted to add Francoise Raunet to the mayoral candidate list.
@Howellings
