Green Party of Vancouver candidate Pete Fry was elected mayor on Saturday, October 17, 2026, unseating incumbent Ken Sim and shifting the city’s municipal government to the left in a contest marked by record advance voter turnout.
Vancouver swung decisively to the left as two-time councillor Pete Fry defeated incumbent Ken Sim to win the mayoral race. Fry’s victory makes him the first Green candidate ever elected to lead a major Canadian city. As election results rolled in on Saturday night, jubilant crowds at the Green Party’s gathering celebrated the outcome by chanting, Our guy, Pete Fry!
The election marked a dramatic reversal for Sim’s right-of-centre ABC Vancouver party, which swept to power in 2022 with a definitive majority on council. Over the four-year term, however, that caucus shrank as several politicians left the party, and ABC was nearly wiped out in Saturday’s vote. Sim delivered his concession speech after the results confirmed his defeat, reflecting on his time in office.
Voter Turnout Surges as Electorate Demands Change
Voters went to the polls in unprecedented numbers, signaling a strong appetite for a new direction at city hall. More than 103,000 residents cast ballots over four advance voting days, representing a 59 per cent increase compared to the 2022 municipal election. Additionally, more than 21,000 voters requested vote-by-mail packages, more than double the volume from the previous election cycle, as reported by Yahoo News Canada.
Pete Fry unveils Green Party of Vancouver's housing plan 🏡https://t.co/DsdPuGkkpf
Andy Yan, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, noted that ABC attempted to frame the election around crime, public safety, and street disorder, while opposing parties focused heavily on housing and social supports. That fractured landscape was shaped by what Yan described as a polycrisis of aging infrastructure, climate change, and housing unaffordability.
A New Council Takes Shape Without a Majority
Fry will lead a diverse, new-look civic administration featuring representatives from the Green Party, COPE, and OneCity. Four Green council candidates won seats: Annette Reilly, Stephanie Smith, Camil Dumont, and Bridget Burns, alongside OneCity incumbent Lucy Maloney.
Pete Fry said Vancouverites should not worry about the new council’s ability to get things done, despite having no majority, noting that he spent eight years on the Union of B.C. Municipalities where most mayors and councils functioned fine without political parties.
Housing, Construction, and Governance Priorities
Looking ahead to his term, Fry outlined several key policy directions aimed at addressing Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis. He indicated an intent to promote wood-frame construction to support British Columbia communities tied to the forestry industry, particularly in light of U.S. tariffs on Canadian forestry products. He proposed scaling four-to-six-storey wood-frame buildings across the city utilizing single-egress staircases to maximize usable floor space, create larger units, and deliver ground-oriented housing. He also promised to reinstate the Renters’ Office.
Speaking with Daily Hive before his win, Fry positioned himself as a direct counterweight to the previous administration’s trajectory. He argued that many of the city’s persistent challenges stem from poor governance, transparency gaps, and accountability issues under the Vancouver Charter and Local Government Act.
If you’re dissatisfied with the last four years and where things are going with Ken Sim, then I’m the antidote to that.
While numerous rezoning proposals were processed over the previous four years, Fry contended that meaningful home construction lagged behind. He pointed to broader economic headwinds, including federal immigration reduction policies, foreign buyer restrictions, and high presale requirements from banks that demand roughly 60 per cent of units sold before issuing project financing.