OneCity Vancouver candidate William Azaroff announced Tuesday that he has withdrawn from the mayoral race, leaving Green Party city councillor Pete Fry as the lone candidate on the “progressive side” of the political spectrum in the Oct. 17 municipal election.

Azaroff’s news conference came six days after COPE mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen made the same decision to leave the race. The Greens, OneCity and COPE have described themselves as progressives, or left of centre.

“I have never wavered in our belief that we must be clear-eyed about the realities of this election, and how much is at stake,” Azaroff told reporters from the Helena Gutteridge Plaza at city hall. “In order to get [Mayor] Ken Sim out, we have to unite behind a single progressive mayoral candidate.”

The three parties have been public about their concerns of splitting votes, talking openly for the past year about uniting behind one candidate. There were suggestions of a “people’s primary” among the three parties, but that was shot down.

Azaroff, the CEO of non-profit Brightside Homes, won his party’s nomination in February. Fry announced one month earlier his intention to run for mayor, while Allen was acclaimed by COPE in May.

‘Casual cruelty’

Azaroff stopped short of publicly endorsing Fry, but said he saw in him “a commitment and a personal desire to bring competence and ethics back to the mayor’s office.”

He said Fry has witnessed and experienced firsthand “the casual cruelty of Ken Sim and ABC [Vancouver] during this term, and feels deeply that he must change that.”

Fry and Sim were often at odds regarding policy decisions, including Sim’s push to abolish the elected park board, place a temporary ban on the construction of new supportive housing and budget increases to the Vancouver Police Department.

Azaroff said he recently hosted Fry at his house, where the pair shared tea and cookies, and discussed the mayoral race. Azaroff said he knew last week that he was likely going to fold his campaign but consulted with the party and others before making a decision.

“I mean, to be honest, probably Thursday afternoon my heart kind of knew,” he said. “But my brain decided yesterday.”

OneCity council candidate Frances Bula spoke during the news conference and got emotional as she talked about the bond cemented with Azaroff and the party’s candidates. Bula was a long-time civic affairs journalist before seeking a nomination with OneCity.

“I’ve seen a lot of leaders in the last several decades, and William Azaroff was one of the few that really stood out to me as someone who is qualified, deeply caring and really committed to the public good,” she said, noting she and OneCity’s candidates were grieving Azaroff’s withdrawal from the race.

“William, thank you so much. It’s very hard to see a member of our team leave.”

‘United in our values’

Fry and Allen both attended the news conference and spoke to reporters after Azaroff finished taking questions. The trio exchanged hugs and posed for photographs.

Fry described Azaroff’s decision to leave the race as courageous.

“I have the utmost respect for William,” he said. “William’s my friend and neighbour. I know this has been a really difficult position and decision to make, but I think that we are united in our values.”

Allen said she was still confirming what Elections BC rules say about her publicly endorsing Fry now that she’s out of the race. Azaroff said he was doing the same, but both former mayoral candidates say they will continue working with their parties’ campaigns.

“We’ve formed a really great relationship over the last while, and I’m going to keep showing up for them,” Allen said.

In April, the Greens, OneCity and COPE announced that they reached an agreement on how many candidates they will each run in the election. For city council, each party will nominate up to five candidates for 10 councillor seats.

For the school board, COPE and the Greens will run up to four candidates for nine trustee seats; OneCity will run up to five. For the park board, COPE and the Greens will run up to four candidates for seven park commissioner seats; OneCity will run up to three.

The deadline for all candidates to file nomination papers is Sept. 11.

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