COPE elects all nine candidates; Sean Orr pledges to repeal supportive housing pause
COPE won four seats each on council, the park board, and the school board. Councillor Sean Orr, who received the most votes of any councillor, said his first priority is repealing the city's pause on new supportive housing.
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COPE elected all nine of its candidates in Vancouver's October 17 municipal election, placing four city councillors, four park board commissioners, and four school board trustees, the Georgia Straight reported from election night.
Sean Orr, Chloe Leslie, Devyani Singh, and Solomon Yi-Kieran all won council seats for COPE. The Georgia Straight reported that Sean Orr received the most votes of any city councillor in the October 17 count.
Orr told the Straight that his first priority when he returns to work is repealing the city's current pause on new supportive housing projects. "I know now that there's a lot of work to be done," he said at COPE's election night celebration at the Japanese Hall on Hastings Street. "There's a mess that we're going to have to clean up."
Orr had previously said that the new council's different composition would make it possible to repeal the pause, which he has called cruel and wrongheaded. The pause had kept new supportive housing projects from going ahead during the outgoing council's term.
The Georgia Straight reports the new council holds four Green councillors, four COPE councillors, Lucy Maloney of OneCity, and Mike Klassen of ABC Vancouver. No party holds a majority of the ten seats.
Green Party candidate Pete Fry won the mayor's race. The Georgia Straight reports that COPE and OneCity had both withdrawn their mayoral candidates before the election, after the parties reached an agreement. Orr said the negotiations had been hard work and that he was proud of the parties' former mayoral candidates for their decision.
Orr also said at the celebration that he felt the result was personal. "It's unlike a lot of elections in terms of what I've gone through on council and the attacks that they've made against me," he told the Straight. "So there are a lot of emotions. This is a movement."
You can follow whether Orr delivers on his supportive housing pledge at /candidates/sean-orr.
Questions this story answers
How many COPE candidates were elected on October 17?
COPE elected all nine of its candidates: four city councillors, four park board commissioners, and four school board trustees, according to the Georgia Straight's reporting from election night on October 17, 2026.
Which COPE candidates were elected to Vancouver city council?
The Georgia Straight reports that Sean Orr, Chloe Leslie, Devyani Singh, and Solomon Yi-Kieran were all elected to Vancouver city council as COPE candidates on October 17, 2026. Each of their candidate pages on this site includes their full list of pledges and current status.
Who received the most votes among council candidates?
The Georgia Straight reports that Sean Orr received the most votes of any councillor in the October 17 election. Orr has served on council since winning a byelection in early 2025 and ran as a COPE councillor candidate in this election. You can follow his pledges at /candidates/sean-orr.
What did Sean Orr say he would do first as a councillor?
According to the Georgia Straight, Orr said his first priority is repealing the city's pause on new supportive housing projects. He told the paper: 'I know now that there's a lot of work to be done. There's a mess that we're going to have to clean up.' You can follow his progress on this and other pledges at /candidates/sean-orr.
What is the pause on supportive housing in Vancouver?
The current Vancouver council put a pause on approving new supportive housing projects. Orr has called this pause cruel and wrongheaded in past statements and pledged to bring a repeal to the new council. The pause was one of the issues in the lead-up to the October 17 vote.
Why did COPE do well in this election?
The Georgia Straight reports that COPE and OneCity candidates running for mayor withdrew before the election. This allowed Green Party candidate Pete Fry to win the mayor's race. Orr told the paper the parties had worked out an agreement and that the negotiating team had put in hard work.
How did the election night celebration look for COPE?
The Georgia Straight reports that hundreds of COPE supporters gathered at the Japanese Hall on Hastings Street on election night, October 17, celebrating as results came in. Orr told the paper that after four years when COPE was almost shut out of all three bodies, he still found the result hard to believe.
Where can I see Sean Orr's full list of pledges and his progress on them?
You can follow all of Sean Orr's pledges and their current status at /candidates/sean-orr on this site. Each pledge records the source, the current status, and any council votes or documents tied to it.
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