What you need to know about Vancouver's April 5 byelection
Voters will choose from 13 candidates to fill 2 vacant seats on council
Voters in Vancouver will choose from 13 candidates to fill two vacant seats on council with mail-in ballots now available and advance voting on March 16 and April 1 at city hall.
General voting day is Saturday, April 5 at locations across the city.
On Friday, the city randomly selected the name order for ballots for the election as follows:
- Guy Dubé.
- Karin Litzcke.
- Rollergirl.
- Charles Ling.
- Ralph Kaisers, ABC Vancouver.
- Lucy Maloney, OneCity.
- Jeanifer Decena.
- Jaime Stein, ABC Vancouver.
- Sean Orr, Coalition of Progressive Electors.
- Colleen Hardwick, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.
- Theodore Abbott, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.
- Gerry McGuire.
- Annette Reilly, Green Party of Vancouver.
A random order ballot was used in both the 1993 Vancouver election and again in the 2018 election after concerns an alphabetical order unfairly favoured names at the top.
In the 2022 civic election, numbers were added to the names on the ballot in random order to help voters more easily find names.
Candidate social media accounts and contact information are listed on the city's website here.
Voter interest?
In the City of Vancouver's 138-year history, only 17 byelections have been held, according to the city website. Its most recent was in 2017, which had a voter turnout of 10.99 per cent.
The byelection comes two and a half years into council's four-year mandate, with OneCity's Christine Boyle resigning in December after being elected to the provincial legislature.
Green Party of Vancouver Coun. Adriane Carr quit in January, saying she had lost confidence and trust in the mayor.
ABC Vancouver currently has a majority on council under Mayor Ken Sim and councillors Lisa Dominato, Sarah Kirby-Yung, Mike Klassen, Peter Meiszner, Brian Montague and Lenny Zhou.
Former ABC Coun. Rebecca Bligh is sitting as an independent after being booted from the party's caucus in mid-February because she was, "not aligned with the shared priorities and team-oriented approach that defines ABC Vancouver," said a party statement at the time.
The Green Party of Vancouver's Pete Fry, who lost the 2017 byelection but was elected in 2018, holds the remaining council seat.
In 2022, ABC ran on a platform of public safety and fiscal responsibility, but has attracted criticism over decisions around supportive housing, climate policies, championing bitcoin for the city, questioning the work of the city's integrity commissioner and a move to dissolve the elected park board.
ABC elected 18 candidates across council, park board and school board in 2022, but only 13 currently remain in the party.
ABC is running two candidates in the byelection: Ralph Kaisers and Jamie Stein, with Sim introducing them in February as sharing, "a deep commitment to making Vancouver safer, more prosperous and more livable for all."
Candidates from other major parties running for the seats are attacking ABC's record, which features as the major theme of the campaign.
"The 2025 byelection is a referendum on Ken Sim and ABC," said Colleen Hardwick when she was nominated. She placed third in the 2022 mayoral race and was a Vancouver city councillor from 2018 to 2022.
"I think we really need someone who will be a voice for the people," said COPE's Sean Orr upon his nomination.
Future council make-up
No matter the results of the byelection, ABC Vancouver will continue to have a majority on council, but voting will be much tighter, with some ABC councillors, such as Lisa Dominato, already voting against her party, as she did over a February vote to pause net-new supportive housing in the city.
To be eligible to vote, voters must be 18 years old by April 5, be a Canadian citizen, and have lived in B.C. for at least six months immediately before registration day.
Information on eligibility, and how and where to vote can be found on the city byelection web portal here.
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