Vancouver's new mayor and what comes next for the city

Pete Fry took the oath of office at The Orpheum Theatre on November 2, becoming Vancouver's first Green mayor. Business in Vancouver reported that he received 98,748 votes on October 17, defeating incumbent Ken Sim. He is the city's 42nd mayor.

The Vancouver Sun published a profile of Fry on November 6 tracing his path to city hall. The Sun reports that Fry was born in Dublin in 1969, moved to Vancouver as a child, and built a career in graphic design and community activism in Strathcona before winning his first council seat in 2018.

How the coalition won

Business in Vancouver reported that the Green Party, COPE and OneCity Vancouver entered an agreement before the election to limit how many candidates each party would run across council, school board and park board. The Vancouver Sun reports that COPE's Stephanie Allen and OneCity's William Azaroff withdrew from the mayoral race in September so the parties could back a single candidate for mayor. Every Green and COPE candidate on the ballot was elected.

Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University's City program, analyzed polling station data from the 2026 election, as the Vancouver Sun reports. His analysis found that the election split along a north-south line rather than the east-west divide that shaped Vancouver for much of the twentieth century. Fry did better in neighbourhoods where renters make up more than 55% of households, such as the West End, Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant and Grandview-Woodland. Ken Sim won in Dunbar-Southlands, Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy and Oakridge, where homeowners make up 60% or more of households. The Sun reports that renters make up 55% of all Vancouver households overall, though the share varies widely by neighbourhood.

The new council has 11 members: Mayor Fry and four Green Party councillors (Bridget Burns, Camil Dumont, Stephanie Smith, Annette Reilly), four COPE councillors (Sean Orr, Chloe Leslie, Solomon Yi-Kieran, Devyani Singh), one OneCity Vancouver councillor (Lucy Maloney) and one ABC Vancouver councillor (Mike Klassen). Business in Vancouver reported that Solomon Yi-Kieran, 21, is the youngest person ever to hold office at Vancouver City Hall.

The 2027 budget

Vancouver Is Awesome reported that Fry named the 2027 budget as his first priority. City Council has historically approved the budget in December. Fry told reporters after the inauguration that he wanted to review the full budget document before deciding how much to raise property taxes.

A city staff survey, as reported by Vancouver Is Awesome, found that most respondents were supportive of some increase in property taxes. Of the options presented, the most preferred was a 5% increase that maintains current services. Business improvement associations, the restaurant industry and the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade backed a freeze, citing growing costs in a difficult economy. The incoming ABC Vancouver councillor Mike Klassen had campaigned on a second year of zero percent tax growth; Fry, COPE's Sean Orr and OneCity's Lucy Maloney had each said in the previous term that a freeze risked cuts to jobs and services, as Vancouver Is Awesome reported.

Community safety first

At the inauguration, Fry named community safety as his top priority. Business in Vancouver reported that he wants to increase daytime shelter access and get unhoused people into stable environments, and that he will seek funding from the provincial and federal governments for that goal.

His campaign committed to launching CROW: Community Response Outreach Workers, a 24-hour non-police, non-medical mobile response team to handle non-emergency calls for people experiencing homelessness, addiction or other vulnerabilities. The Green Party also proposed an Office of Community Safety to bring together neighbourhood services including fire, police, licensing and planning. Both commitments are listed in Fry's campaign promises at /candidates/pete-fry.

What comes next

The next scheduled regular council meeting is November 18, 2026, according to Vancouver Is Awesome. Councillor Lucy Maloney has five motions prepared: restoring Vancouver's status as an inclusive city; addressing risks to digital infrastructure; working with other levels of government on the economy and tariff pressures; strengthening rules against tax avoidance for unbuilt housing sites; and reinstating a full-time seniors' planner position.

Fry and the coalition have also indicated they want to reverse the previous council's pause on building net new supportive housing and to restore the renters' office. COPE's platform calls for tripling the empty homes tax and buying apartments for permanently affordable public housing and co-ops. OneCity wants to allow backyard businesses, corner stores and pop-ups, and to create grants for businesses that make products in Vancouver.

The 2027 budget, expected to come to council for a vote in December, is the moment when many of these plans become concrete and residents will see which ones Fry's coalition can get through. Residents can read all of Fry's campaign commitments and track whether he has acted on them at /candidates/pete-fry. The next scheduled council meeting is November 18.