And Then There Was One Progressive Running for Vancouver Mayor

Despite claiming as recently as last week that he was still committed to running for mayor, OneCity candidate William Azaroff on Tuesday announced he was ending his campaign.

Polling from earlier this summer showed support for Azaroff was well behind fellow progressive candidate Pete Fry with the Green Party of Vancouver. Candidates from other parties were also polling better than Azaroff, including incumbent Mayor Ken Sim from the ABC Vancouver party, Kareem Allam with the Vancouver Liberals and Colleen Hardwick with TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.

While Azaroff didn’t cite the polls as the reason for stepping back from his mayoral campaign, in a Tuesday press conference outside city hall Azaroff spoke about what he has heard from Vancouver residents since his campaign began in late January.

“People feel like the city is running on fumes, that our best days are behind us. I’ve also heard how scared people are of another Ken Sim and ABC majority. And I deeply share this view,” he told reporters, citing ABC’s decisions to pause approvals for some supportive-housing developments and cancel the city’s commitment to be a living wage employer.

“I thought about the commitment that OneCity made to you all: that only one progressive candidate will be on the ballot this election. So today I’m announcing that I’m keeping that promise. And I’ve decided to end my campaign for mayor of Vancouver.”

Azaroff’s announcement came nearly a week after Stephanie Allen, the mayoral candidate for the Coalition of Progressive Electors, or COPE, announced she was ending her campaign. Both Azaroff and Allen have experience working in the non-profit housing sector, Azaroff as the CEO of Brightside and Allen as a former BC Housing executive.

This leaves the Green Party of Vancouver’s Fry as the sole progressive mayoral candidate standing, following a commitment among OneCity, the Greens and COPE to run just one mayoral candidate among them in the Oct. 17 civic election.

Both Azaroff and Allen, who, along with Fry, was present at Tuesday’s press conference, would not explicitly endorse Fry for mayor, citing uncertainty around Elections BC’s rules regarding endorsements for another party.

But both now-former mayoral candidates implied their support for the Vancouver Greens’ candidate in their comments to reporters. The three candidates embraced one another for photos, and Fry referred to both Allen and Azaroff as his friends.

“I see in him a commitment to bring competence and ethics back to the mayor’s office,” Azaroff said of Fry. “I believe that it is the right thing for me to do to step aside, so there is one unified progressive mayoral candidate next month.”

“We know we want a progressive majority. So our candidates want to make sure that this is the winning team, is this progressive group of people,” said Allen, who remains on COPE’s campaign committee.

“But we’re going to continue to work within the Elections BC law, which is what we’re confirming.”

While Azaroff is stepping down, OneCity is still running 13 candidates across council, school board and park board. Azaroff told news media he will not ask any OneCity candidates to step down so he can run in their place.

Addressing his and OneCity’s supporters, Azaroff thanked them for their support but also encouraged them to follow the party’s “pragmatic progressives” slogan.

“We always knew that a moment like this could happen. As long as there are two progressives or three progressives on the ticket, then Ken Sim wins,” Azaroff said.

“The reason why all three of our parties have gotten into the people’s or progressive primary is because we share so many values and so many things we want to do. So I have a lot of faith that a Pete Fry administration will do many of the things we want to do.”

Ten of OneCity’s candidates stood behind Azaroff during his announcement. OneCity council candidate Frances Bula also addressed the media.

“We still have an election to win. OneCity will continue to show up over the coming weeks with real plans to deliver real solutions for people, on the issues that matter to them the most,” she said, citing affordability, climate action, the local economy, public safety, child care and municipal services.

“It’s very hard to see a member of our team leave,” added Bula, who teared up as she spoke. “Our 13 OneCity candidates are stepping up with a commitment to lead and to build and to show up as a team.”

‘We do share a lot of values’

Fry, who is a current city councillor, also spoke with reporters. He addressed his continued campaign for mayor and his message to OneCity and COPE supporters who are hesitant to vote Green. And he described what sets him apart from remaining mayoral candidates Allam, fellow councillor Rebecca Bligh of Vote Vancouver and former councillor Colleen Hardwick of TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.

“We do share a lot of values, so where we may differ on policies, I’m sure we can knit that out,” Fry said of similarities between his party and COPE and OneCity, adding the three parties will continue to work together as much as is allowed under the provincial Local Elections Campaign Financing Act.

Asked if he would work with the Vancouver Liberals, Fry said he has met with Allam and would be happy to do so again. But the Vancouver Liberals don’t share similar values with the Green Party of Vancouver, Fry said, citing Allam’s past positions as the 2022 ABC campaign manager and briefly as Sim’s chief of staff in early 2023.

In his own emailed press release, Allam thanked Azaroff for his campaign and highlighted areas they did agree on, including building more affordable housing, providing better public transit, more child-care spaces, improved public services and synchronizing traffic lights on downtown one-way streets.

“William has consistently talked about building a city that works for everyone. I respect that,” Allam’s press release reads.

“I’m running because I think Vancouver needs a mayor who can bring people together across traditional political divides and build a broader coalition for change.”

While former councillor Colleen Hardwick remains in the race for mayor, Fry encouraged supporters of Hardwick and TEAM to consider what values they share with the Greens.

“We all care about our communities, we all care about our city, and I think that we can certainly work together on a lot of things. And I think they may want to take another look,” he said.

But in her own press release reacting to Azaroff’s departure, Hardwick disagreed with Fry’s assessment of their parties.

“Will Vancouver continue to be governed by a City Hall that puts developers’ profits ahead of residents' interests? There are three parties that represent this approach: ABC, the Vancouver Liberals, and the Greens,” Hardwick’s press release reads.

“Or will Vancouver voters choose an approach that respects the needs and interests of residents and neighbourhoods and puts people before profit? The one party that will do that is TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.”

Parties are still running numerous council candidates

Last month in an interview with The Tyee, University of British Columbia political science lecturer Stewart Prest recommended that OneCity, the Greens and COPE also pare down the number of candidates each party is running overall, in order to not cancel out one another’s votes.

Subject to a previous agreement, each party is running 13 candidates or fewer across council, school board and park board. While the parties have until Sept. 11 to register candidates, currently the Greens are running nine candidates, OneCity 13 candidates and COPE 12 candidates.

Allen told reporters that COPE has no plans to reduce its candidate numbers. Fry said the Greens had no plans to cut candidates and had previously hoped their decision to run nine candidates would have encouraged the other parties to do the same.

But Azaroff said there have been discussions about this issue.

“The reality is we have an excellent team of candidates; I’m fully committed to this group behind me and trying to get them elected, as well as Pete Fry. I know conversations have happened behind the scenes, but I can’t say much about that,” he said.

Echoing Allen’s previous statements that the Oct. 17 civic election is about “harm reduction” in terms of removing Sim and ABC from office and undoing some of the changes they introduced, Azaroff called on Bligh and Allam to also consider stepping down from the mayoral race.

Bligh is a current city councillor who was first elected in 2018 with the Non-Partisan Association, or NPA. She was re-elected in 2022 with ABC but was ejected from the party in 2025 after speaking out against the pause on supportive housing.

“I would encourage Rebecca [Bligh] and Kareem [Allam] especially to look at the role they’re going to play in this election and how we can bring real policy change to the city,” he said.

“And more than policy change, an attitude change: a change to someone who listens and cares and responds to the needs of Vancouverites, both those who are doing well and those who are struggling. And that’s not happening right now.”