Rebecca Bligh: two parties, one expulsion, and a run for mayor

Rebecca Bligh is number 52 on the mayoral ballot. She has sat on Vancouver City Council since 2018, first for the NPA, then for ABC Vancouver, then as an independent after ABC removed her in February 2025, and now for Vote Vancouver, the party she founded in September 2025. She led the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for two years while all of this happened. This profile sets out her life, her record, the two party breaks, and her platform, with sources listed at the end. Her full research page is at voche.me/candidates/rebecca-bligh.

From New Zealand to a consulting practice

Bligh was born in New Zealand and moved to Canada at age ten. She has lived in Vancouver for more than 20 years. She has spoken about being a single mother and a renter as a young adult; she and her partner Laura now own their home and have two adult children.

Before politics she worked for local businesses, including a security company, and founded BLACKPiiN, a consulting practice that trains executives and teams. Her Federation of Canadian Municipalities biography, which she supplied, also lists leadership training delivered in Ethiopia and Mozambique for two non-profit organizations, the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation and Legado Initiatives. voche.me has not checked those roles with the organizations.

First break: leaving the NPA in 2019

She was elected to Council in 2018 with the Non-Partisan Association, receiving 44,053 votes. In December 2019 she left the party. Her statement at the time: “As the only queer elected official with the NPA, I feel the party no longer represents or supports my choices, my identity, and everybody that believes in inclusion.” The departure followed the election of party executives linked to activism against the province’s SOGI school policy.

She joined ABC Vancouver, the party Ken Sim founded, and was re-elected in 2022 with 62,765 votes.

Second break: removed by ABC in 2025

On February 14, 2025, ABC removed Bligh from its caucus. Party president Stephen Molnar said she was “not aligned with the shared priorities and team-oriented approach that defines ABC Vancouver” and had put her own views ahead of the team.

Three disagreements came before the removal, according to Vancity Lookout and Daily Hive:

• She voted, with ABC councillors Lisa Dominato and Peter Meiszner, against an ABC motion to end the ban on natural gas heating in new detached homes.
• She tried to get provincial input before Council voted on the mayor’s plan to halt new supportive housing. Her motion was delayed on procedural grounds.
• She called ABC’s attempt to suspend investigations by the City’s integrity commissioner a “targeted conspiracy.”

Her response on the day: “Mayor Ken Sim told us he wanted a diversity of opinions at the table. By his actions today, he has shown that was never the case.” She also said she would have expected a conversation about policy differences before being removed. The removal was a political decision by a party. No misconduct was alleged against her.

She sat as an independent until September 22, 2025, when she announced Vote Vancouver and her run for mayor.

A national role

Bligh has been on the board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the body that represents Canada’s cities and towns to the federal government, since 2018. She served as its president from October 2024 to June 2026, during the period in which ABC removed her. Vancity Lookout described her as the second Vancouver councillor to hold the post in more than 70 years. She is also a director of the Metro Vancouver Regional District.

On Council her recorded work includes a November 2023 motion on supportive housing, single-room-occupancy replacement and coordination between governments in the Downtown Eastside.

What Vote Vancouver promises for 2026

Her campaign launch outside City Hall on September 9, 2026 presented a platform she calls the practical middle. The published commitments:

• Co-operative and community housing on public land, with the City keeping ownership of the land, plus permanently affordable homes and non-profit childcare on public sites.
• Replacing unsafe single-room-occupancy buildings with supportive homes.
• Free transit for people under 18, to be negotiated with TransLink.
• Reported streetlights repaired within 72 hours, and accessible timed crossings within 12 months.
• Ten new pedestrian plazas and seasonal bike parking.
• A City Hall desk for seniors, a single point of contact for small businesses, and restoring the Energize Vancouver program.
• Property tax increases held to inflation.

She told CBC News in September that “this moment needs all levels of government working together,” and has criticized ABC for moving to the right and for not delivering on its promises. Critics quoted by the Vancouver Sun say her appeal is mainly to federal Liberal supporters.

What is still unknown

Vote Vancouver has not published the annual cost of free youth transit or who would pay for it, which public sites are ready for the housing and childcare proposals, or how a first budget would add services while holding tax increases to inflation. Her research page lists those as open questions, along with how progress against the 72-hour and 100-day commitments would be reported; the campaign has not published answers. Her poll standing is on the polls page.

Image: VMIRoy via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, September 2025, cropped and composed with text by voche.me.