--- title: "Why 8 mayoral candidates could split Vancouver's progressive vote" description: "How an April agreement among three parties, two September withdrawals and a mid-September poll changed the shape of Vancouver's mayoral race, and what it means for how you mark a ballot with 8 names on it." canonical_url: "https://voche.me/news/vote-splitting-2026-vancouver-mayor" last_updated: "2026-09-24T22:56:47.676Z" --- Eight names are on Vancouver's mayoral ballot this October, and three parties spent 2026 trying to make sure that number did not cost them the race. This is what they agreed to, what changed in September, and what it means for how you read your ballot on October 17. ## What "vote splitting" means here When several candidates draw support from the same group of voters, that support divides among them instead of gathering behind one name. A candidate the majority of voters oppose can then win with a minority share, because the majority never combined behind a single alternative. In Vancouver's case, COPE, OneCity and the Green Party of Vancouver all draw from an overlapping pool of voters who want to replace incumbent Mayor Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver, so a divided field works in Sim's favour even if most voters would rather see someone else win. ## The April agreement did not cap mayoral candidates On April 15, 2026, COPE, OneCity and the Green Party of Vancouver announced an agreement covering their council, school board and park board slates. Each party limited itself to a set number of non-mayor candidates, up to 13 each, to avoid splitting votes down-ballot. The agreement did not set a cap on mayoral candidates. Instead, the three parties committed to a good-faith process, later called the Progressive Primary, to identify which of their mayoral candidates was best positioned to compete, while leaving each party free to run its own candidate for mayor in the meantime. COPE and the Green Party still had to bring the deal to their own memberships for ratification before it took effect. ## Two withdrawals in September The mayoral field narrowed on its own before any primary process concluded. Stephanie Allen, COPE's candidate, withdrew from the race at a news conference outside Vancouver City Hall on September 2, 2026. She said limiting the number of candidates competing for the same voters mattered more than staying in the race herself, and she called on the Greens and OneCity to unite behind one remaining name. She did not endorse either party when she withdrew. COPE members told CBC News it was their understanding that an endorsement from Allen at that point would have broken Elections BC rules. Six days later, on September 8, 2026, OneCity's William Azaroff withdrew as well, this time endorsing Green Party city councillor Pete Fry directly at a joint announcement. That left Fry as the only mayoral candidate from the three parties still actively campaigning. Both Allen's and Azaroff's names remain on the printed ballot. The City of Vancouver finalized the candidate list and ballot order in early September, before either withdrawal, so a voter will still see both names on October 17 even though neither is campaigning any longer. ## What the polls showed afterward Pete Fry had already been polling ahead of both Allen and Azaroff among the three parties' combined supporters before either withdrew. A Justason Market Intelligence poll taken from August 31 to September 11, 2026 put him at 45% of decided voters against Ken Sim's 30%. Interviews conducted after Azaroff's September 8 withdrawal, folded into that same release, put Fry at 59%. Justason's poll is one data point from one firm; the full set of published polls, each with its own source, sample and date, is tracked on the voche.me polls page. ## What this means for your ballot The mayoral ballot still lists all 8 names: incumbent Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver, Pete Fry of the Green Party, Colleen Hardwick of TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, Rebecca Bligh of Vote Vancouver, Kareem Allam of the Vancouver Liberals, Muhammad Ahmad of Bright Future Vancouver, and independents Amauri Caliman and Scott Gilbert. Vancouver's mayoral election uses first-past-the-post voting, so the candidate with the most votes wins even without a majority, and a marked ballot for a withdrawn candidate still counts as a vote for that name. Nothing about the mechanics of marking a ballot changes because of a withdrawal. What has changed is the public information available about who each remaining candidate's supporters see as the strongest alternative, which is one factor among several a voter can weigh before October 17. ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](/sitemap.md) for all pages.