Laura Gillanders was re-elected to Richmond City Council on October 17, 2026. The City's official count, declared on October 21, 2026, gives her 13,122 votes, fifth among the 55 council candidates. The City's declaration of election by voting prints RITE Richmond as her elector organization; Richmond News reported that its three sitting councillors, Carol Day, Michael Wolfe and Gillanders, were all re-elected. On election night she told Richmond News that some of the new councillors had campaigned on what she called misinformation about sitting councillors wanting drug sites, and that Council deals with roads, heritage, public works and parks rather than drugs, health care or treatment.
Richmond News reported her first election in October 2022, with 10,817 votes, as one of two new members of Council; the City's official results of October 19, 2022 list her seventh of 22 council candidates. The City's own page says she has worked more than 30 years in accounting and as chief financial officer of a large Richmond construction company, campaigned with Richmond FarmWatch to preserve farmland and reduce house size limits, and chaired the Richmond Food Security and Agricultural Advisory Committee in past years. In the statement she gave the City she says she sits on the Economic Advisory and Major Projects Oversight committees and is Council's liaison to the Gateway Theatre Board, the Richmond School Board, the Sea Island Community Association, the First Nations Building Committee and the Food Security and Agricultural Advisory Committee.
Richmond News reported in February 2024 that she and Councillor Kash Heed initiated the motion, carried 8 to 1 at committee, directing staff to explore a site at the hospital grounds where drug users could test and consume drugs; after the vote, the paper reported in October 2026, Vancouver Coastal Health said a consumption site was not needed in Richmond. By her own account, in the statement she gave the City and on RITE's site, she introduced the motions that added an audit function to the Finance Committee, reworked the lower-end market rental program and created the Housing Office, and asked staff to create a housing authority; in her questionnaire she adds that Council replaced the Olympic Oval board to cut executive salaries. voche.me has not checked these against Council records.
In her Richmond News questionnaire, posted on RITE's site, she answered yes to more City-owned land for affordable housing, lower fees for developers, continuing temporary modular housing contracts, more bike lanes and buses, more recreation facilities, more arts funding, reducing environmentally sensitive areas on private property, low-cost commercial space for entrepreneurs and more public consultation, and no to retail cannabis stores. She wrote that taxes cannot be lowered but increases can be kept to a minimum by finding efficiencies, and that she wants to see through the new covered multi-sport box. At the council debate of October 8, 2026, Richmond News reported, she said the City should build on City-owned land because reliance on private developers for affordable housing has not worked.
The City's minutes of September 28, 2026 list her present and record her and Councillor Wolfe as the two members opposed to first, second and third reading of the bylaw rezoning 9211 to 9351 Blundell Road to high density townhouses, after discussion of tree retention and replacement. The minutes of October 13, 2026 list her present and record no vote by her against a motion.
