The City of Vancouver says 131 candidates had registered by Friday’s deadline to run for the positions of mayor, city councillor, school trustee and park commissioner in the Oct. 17 municipal election.

The number of candidates is six fewer than the 137 that ran in the 2022 election.

Eight candidates, including incumbent Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver and city councillors Rebecca Bligh of Vote Vancouver and Pete Fry of the Green Party of Vancouver, are running for mayor.

Fifty-six people are vying for 10 councillor spots, 32 for nine school trustee positions and 35 for seven park board commissioner vacancies. The full list of candidates can be viewed on the city’s website.

The parties or organizations represented are TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, OneCity Vancouver, ABC Vancouver, the Green Party of Vancouver, COPE, Vote Vancouver, the Vancouver Liberals, Bright Future Vancouver, True Blue Vancouver, Affordable Housing and Independent Parks Party.

The list of candidates is subject to change until Sept. 18 at 4 p.m., which is the deadline for candidate nomination challenges, candidate withdrawals and withdrawal of candidate endorsements by political parties.

The election office will then determine the order of candidates’ names on the ballot by random draw on Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. at city hall.

Chinese names

OneCity issued a news release Friday over concerns that candidates Iona Bonamis 陶思穎(council) and Christopher Lee 李基鵬 (school board) wouldn’t be able to have their full English and Chinese names on the ballot.

“Telling me to pick one half of myself to run for office is forcing me, and candidates like me, to show up to public life as only part of ourselves,” Bonamis said. “This is a ridiculous proposition in a city where nearly one in five residents is of Chinese descent.”

She pointed out the city city’s election office unsuccessfully challenged her name in 2022 and former council candidate Brandon Yan’s name in 2018. The party has written chief election officer Jason Twa to reconsider going to court.

The city’s communications department confirmed in an email Friday that Twa, who doubles as Vancouver’s city clerk, will file an application in B.C. Provincial Court.

He will be “seeking a ruling on whether certain candidates are entitled to have the usual name they provided in their nomination documents used on the ballot for the 2026 Vancouver election.”

Under the Vancouver Charter, candidates can choose to have their usual name printed on the ballot, instead of their full name. A voter, another candidate, or the chief election officer can challenge this if they believe the name entered is not the candidate’s usual name as contemplated by the Charter

“The city will not be making further comment on this matter as it proceeds to court,” the city’s communications department said.

Plebiscite questions

The cost of the election is estimated to cost close to $10 million, when including the $400,000 to $550,000 to add two plebiscite questions to the ballot. Sim and his ABC colleagues voted in August to include the questions.

They are:

• Are you in favour of the City of Vancouver strengthening its laws to forbid open-air hard drug use—like heroin, meth, fentanyl and crack—in public spaces?

• Should the City of Vancouver formally ask the province of B.C. to convert portions of the old St. Paul’s Hospital, or another similar site, into a secure medical facility that provides acute voluntary and 100-plus involuntary care beds for individuals posing a serious risk to themselves or others due to severe substance use and mental health disorders?

The cost of the election is largely being driven by plans to expand the number of advance voting places to cast a ballot, according to a city staff memo posted on the city’s website.

“A key cost driver is the significant expansion of advance voting, with voting places increasing from 22 over five days in 2022 to 60 over four days in 2026,” the memo said.

“Additional pressures include increased staffing levels to support both advance and election day operations and the deployment of security personnel at all voting places.”

‘Supercentres’

On election day—Saturday Oct. 17—the number of voting places will increase from 82 in 2022 to 87 for 2026. So-called “supercentres” will expand from 68 to 83 to better accommodate higher turnout.

Elections staff defines supercentres as larger, well-equipped voting places that feature spacious rooms, more staff and enhanced voting technology to better accommodate a mass number of voters.

Further investments in technology have also contributed to the higher budget for the 2026 vote. The number of registration laptops will increase from 890 in 2022 to 1,546. Tabulators will increase from 213 to 381.

Staff say the new tabulators will process ballots twice as fast as in previous elections.

2,200 workers

All the changes and additions mean a significant increase in staff.

The city’s election office plans to hire more than 2,200 workers for voting places across the city, which is an increase of nearly 78 per cent from 1,240 in the 2022 election.

For the first time, security personnel will be deployed at all voting places to assist with line management, enforce campaign-related rules and respond to incidents.

“Collectively, these changes reflect a scaled-up election model designed to accommodate increased voter participation and provide more equitable and convenient voting opportunities across the city,” the memo said.

Total cost of the 2022 election was $4.4 million.

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