Hoping for a better chance at defeating Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party, three progressive parties are working together to limit the number of candidates in the upcoming civic election.
The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), OneCity Vancouver, and the Green Party of Vancouver announced Wednesday they have solidified an agreement.
“In 2022, there were too many great council candidates and not enough great mayoral candidates,” said COPE campaign director Shawn Vulliez.
“We trust the voters to rally behind someone and show us who the strongest candidate is for mayor over the summer, and we trust them to vote for the progressive candidates that best represent their priorities in October.”
While the agreement allows parties to have their own mayor candidates, each will limit their nominated candidates for city council, the school board, and the park board, in order to prevent vote-splitting.
Vancouver Green Coun. Pete Fry, who is also a mayoral candidate, says the announcement represents some “pretty hard work” to come up with a respectful agreement.
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“I think what’s really important is it includes sort of a non-aggression approach, really focussing on what we collectively need to do to focus our efforts on defeating Ken Sim and ABC and resetting the local government here in Vancouver.”
Fry’s participation represents a departure from his previous statement that he wasn’t interested in a proposal to hold a “progressive primary” ahead of this year’s election, calling the idea “myopic and self-serving.”
UBC political science lecturer Stewart Prest says he isn’t sure the new strategy will have its intended consequences. He says that even with the progressive parties limiting their candidates, there are still way too many options.
“They really do need to have a progressive slate,” Prest said.
“Voters at the municipal level, they really do need guidance on how to vote. And if you were given a choice between 15 different progressive candidates, you might end up choosing 10 of those, or you might look for another alternative that makes it a lot clearer.”
He says the parties would be much better off choosing a single mayoral candidate now if they want to build momentum.
The parties will be meeting to choose their election candidates in the first half of May.
The general election is scheduled for Oct. 17.