Progressives lead council race

Vancouver, B.C. (September 17, 2026) — A new poll from Justason Market Intelligence (JMI), co-sponsored by Fair Voting BC, finds council candidates from Vancouver’s three progressive parties, COPE, OneCity, and Green, occupying nine of the top 10 spots in a 42-candidate field for the city’s 10 council seats. The same three parties agreed in April to coordinate behind a single mayoral candidate to avoid splitting the progressive vote, a strategy that led to COPE’s Stephanie Allen and OneCity’s William Azaroff withdrawing from the mayoral race in early September in favour of Green candidate Pete Fry. Their council candidates now show a similar pattern: COPE councillor Sean Orr and OneCity councillor Lucy Maloney, both first elected in the March 2025 council byelection, lead the field, while ABC Vancouver, which currently holds 6 of the council’s 10 seats, places only one candidate, incumbent Sarah Kirby-Yung, in the top 10.

Asked which candidates they would vote for from the list of council candidates (voters may choose up to 10), decided voters selected their top 10:

Top 10, Aug 31–Sep 11 survey period:

In contention:

11. Lisa Dominato (ABC Vancouver, incumbent) – 21%

12. Mike Klassen (ABC Vancouver, incumbent) – 20%

13. Iona Bonamis (OneCity) – 20%

14. Joyce Gillespie (ABC Vancouver) – 19%

15. Caitlin Stockwell (OneCity) – 19%

16. Peter Meiszner (ABC Vancouver, incumbent) – 19%

These results suggest a possible shift on council, though the race for the final seats is tight. ABC Vancouver swept 7 of 10 seats in 2022 and holds 6 heading into this election.

Incumbent Sarah Kirby-Yung is ABC’s only candidate in the top 10, but several incumbents are close behind, gaps well within this poll’s margin of error. With ballot order not yet drawn and a month of campaigning still ahead, this snapshot of the race today is not a reliable projection of which 10 candidates will ultimately win.

Orr’s lead extends across every measure of candidate support JMI tested: selection to a respondent’s top 10, first choice, and combined top-three mentions. Asked for their single first choice for council, decided voters name Orr most often (18%), with Maloney second (11%) and Kirby-Yung third (7%). Looking at combined mentions across first, second, and third choices, Orr again leads (29%), followed by Maloney (21%) and Kirby-Yung (15%). Despite ABC’s weaker overall showing here and in the mayoral race, Kirby-Yung is a consistent standout for the party, ranking third on both first choice and combined top-three mentions, and the only ABC candidate to crack the top 10 overall.

Subgroup patterns

ABC’s candidates draw consistently more support from men than women. Kirby-Yung draws 34% support among men versus 13% among women; the same pattern holds across ABC’s other leading candidates, Dominato (26% versus 15%), Klassen (25% versus 14%), Gillespie (28% versus 10%), and Meiszner (25% versus 12%). Several of the leading progressive-aligned candidates show the opposite pattern, drawing stronger support from women than men, Orr (44% versus 30%), Smith (39% versus 20%), Reilly (35% versus 20%), and others in the top 10. This echoes the same gender divide behind Pete Fry’s lead in the mayoral race.

Election issues

Cost of living issues dominate voter concerns heading into this election, just as they do in the mayoral race. Housing affordability and cost of living generally are, together, the top election issue for four in ten Vancouver residents, well ahead of public safety and crime, homelessness, and city government accountability, which cluster well behind. That gap shapes the council race too. Among voters most concerned about crime and public safety, a comparatively small group, Kirby-Yung is the strongest performer of any candidate tested, drawing 45% support. But among voters most concerned about cost of living, by far the largest issue group, her support drops to 20%. Because the cost-of-living group is roughly three times the size of the crime-focused group, that lower percentage still adds up to more actual supporters for Kirby-Yung than her strongest issue group, crime and mental health, produces. The issue ABC performs best on does not drive most voters’ decisions this election.

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Research notes

These are the findings of a general population survey of City of Vancouver adults. This online survey, conducted by Justason Market Intelligence and co-sponsored by Fair Voting BC, was completed August 31 to September 11, 2026. In total, 607 surveys were completed among Vancouver adults, yielding 285 decided council voters.

Data were weighted to reflect the actual gender, age, and regional composition of Vancouver. The design effect introduced by weighting produces an effective sample size of 509, carrying a margin of error for the full sample of ±4.35%, 19 times out of 20. Margins of error are larger for subgroups, including the decided-voter subsample. Data tabulations include significance testing among subgroups.

The questionnaire’s council candidate list was finalized before nominations closed and was limited to candidates from established parties to keep the task manageable for respondents. It does not include Bright Future Vancouver’s six candidates or eight independent and minor-party candidates. No other candidate on the fielded list withdrew as of the close of the survey.

View release here.

View data tables here.

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For more information contact:

Barb Justason
Justason Market Intelligence Inc / JustasonMi.com
+1 604 783 4165 / Barb@JustasonMi.com

Antony Hodgson
President, Fair Voting BC / FairVotingBC.com
Director, Springtide / Springtide.ngo
+1 778 235 7477 / President@FairVotingBC.com / info@springtide.ngo