VANCOUVER 2025 BY-ELECTION
EVENTS, ACTIONS,
AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
SEAN ORR
BY-ELECTION CAMPAIGN LAUNCH
In both the U.S. and Canada, billionaires and the corporate elite are using the chaos of Trump's threats to accelerate their assault on democracy, public services, and environmental protections.
Here in Vancouver the upcoming City Council by-election gives us a chance to fight back - and win. Sean Orr is running with the Coalition of Progressive Electors to take on the billionaire class and the local establishment.
This political revolution kicked off in East Van at the WISE Hall on February 12. Members of the DSoV were there!
Photos: Ryan Walter Wagner
Sean Orr's speech
at the COPE Nomination
Vancouver doesn’t have to be like this.
I love Vancouver, but I hate what it’s become.
The city is a playground for the 1%. Our social fabric is fraying from a housing system that prioritizes return on investment over human needs. People are sleeping on the streets every night and in every neighbourhood, tenants can't afford rent, and it’s getting worse.
We are at a pivotal time. We are in multiple overlapping crises; the housing crisis, climate change and the drug poisoning epidemic. The thread that connects all of these problems is the disproportionate political power of the rich.
People like Elon Musk are buying off politicians to shape the world in their own image and scrap services that people need. Billionaires are exploiting workers, driving up the costs of housing, and burning up our planet. They are scapegoating immigrants, trans kids, and drug users to hold onto power. For the billionaires, the system isn’t broken, it’s working as designed.
Our millionaire Mayor was installed by billionaire backers like Chip Wilson for a reason. Ken Sim is in power to serve the elite.
He killed the living wage policy, he killed the renters office, he killed social housing at Little Mountain, he killed the class action lawsuit to sue Big Oil for climate change, he tried to scrap the Integrity commissioner, he lied about the park board to get elected and then tried to scrap it, and he gave $3.8 million in empty homes tax earmarked for affordable housing to his wealthy developer friends.
Now is not the time for 'nice.' Now is the time to fight.
If I’m elected, I will spend every moment fighting Ken Sim and ABC and exposing them and their billionaire friends for what they are doing to our city.
We can fight for housing. We can fight to protect tenants from demovictions and exploitation. We can fight like hell to end homelessness. We can fight for fully funded and free public transit that connects everyone in Vancouver to amazing public services, parks, pools, and libraries in every corner of the city.
We’re the ones with the energy. We’re the ones with the principles. We’re the ones with the ‘swagger.’
Together we can take democracy back from the billionaires.
Together we can build the city we need.
Together we can Evict Ken Sim.
Vote Socialist!
Good news on the electoral front: Sean Orr, who ran as a Vote Socialist candidate in the 2022 municipal election, has announced he will seek the nomination of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) in the municipal by-election coming up April 5th. COPE is a long-standing party of the broad left in Vancouver and has elected socialists to Vancouver city council, school and park boards over many decades.
The 2022 Vote Socialist campaign grew out of a DSOV elections working group, which will now be rebooted as a DSOV Working Group once more. Anyone interested in helping elect socialist and left candidates for office is welcome to join the group. With Ken Sim and his billionaire backers ramping up their poor-bashing rhetoric and with the threat of Pierre Poilievre looming federally, it’s an important time to offer a real alternative to politics as usual.
Vote Socialist will retain its website and a social media presence but has officially deregistered as an electoral party. You can read their statement calling for left unity to defeat Ken Sim and ABC here.
CITY OF VANCOUVER BY-ELECTION
2025 by-election: Saturday, April 5
You will vote for 2 City councillors
Key dates
February 28
Candidates announcedMarch 3
Request a mail ballot packageMarch 26 and April 1
Advance votingApril 5
Election day
What is a by-election
A by-election is held to fill vacancies on City Council, Park Board, or School Board that occur between general elections.
By-elections are a rare and important part of the democratic process. In the City of Vancouver's 138-year history, only 17 by-elections have been held, with the most recent in 2017.
