Vancouver Mayor Reflects on By-Election Results

Will Sim take the office of the Mayor more seriously now?

Today Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim gave the impression of swallowing some humble pie, saying he and his party would reflect on the results of Sunday's by-election when two progressive candidates were elected by 15 percent of the city's population.

"Regardless if it's a by-election of not... the reality is we listen to the residents of Vancouver every single day," he said. "There are enough of them that said they're not necessarily happy with everything that's going on. We're going to take a really hard look at ourselves."

Sean Orr of COPE received 34,448 votes, while OneCity's Lucy Maloney got 33,732. A total of 67,962 votes were cast.

Orr (left) and Maloney were elected yesterday

When Orr and Maloney are sworn in on April 9, there will be six ABC councillors, former ABC-turned-independent Rebecca Bligh, and Green Party's Pete Fry.

Maloney, an environmental lawyer and transportation activist, said voters sent a strong message to the incumbent party.

"I think that ABC have lost touch with what ordinary Vancouverites are concerned about," she said, adding housing and affordability are the top priority of residents.

COPE's Orr is a housing activist, landscaper and dishwasher. He believes US politics may have influenced Vancouver voters.

"People are very upset," he said. "People are scared, and people are starting to kind of connect the dots with what's going on down south. You're seeing what Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing there. They're kind of seeing how the rich buy their way into office."

Meanwhile city manager Paul Mochrie apologised to voters for having to wait over an hour to exercise their right to vote.

Mochrie apologised for way by-election was run

"I want to acknowledge that voting wait times that many electors experienced yesterday were unacceptable," he said in a statement.

"The extended wait times at many voting places reflected flawed planning assumptions for this by-election that informed staff decisions and the plan presented to Council. Recognising the effort by the City's elections team to promote and execute this plan, it was clearly insufficient to accommodate the electorate in accessing an efficient voting process.

"These shortcomings are deeply regrettable and I apologise to all voters impacted by delays, as well as to candidates and civic parties. I, along with City staff, are committed to ensure that lessons from yesterday's by-election inform the planning and execution of the 2026 general municipal election and all future City of Vancouver election efforts."

This afternoon Mochrie went on CBC Radio Vancouver's afternoon show to apologise again and explain that the plan was formally adopted in January and there was not enough time to alter it when they saw how many people showed up for advance voting and for mail-in ballots. 

People are more civically engaged than ever, and realise how important it is to make their voices heard through the ballot box. And this by-election in particular was their way of showing the mayor how they felt about his two years in office. 

More residents would have turned out if they had known about the election -- some thought that because they hadn't received a voting card they were not eligible! And there was not enough information about priority lines, and how the disabled could vote. Quite a messy affair. At least Mochrie owned up to it.

Watch out for 2026. It's going to be a a good turnout for sure.