By Elke Porter | WBN News Vancouver | September 17, 2026
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First in a series: what Vancouver's 2026 mayoral candidates are actually proposing on the issues voters care about most.

Ask any Vancouver voter what worries them most this election, and housing affordability tops the list almost every time. But "fix housing" isn't a single policy — it's a philosophy, and this year's mayoral field shows just how differently that philosophy can be applied. From deregulation to public investment to a return to "balance," here's where the candidates stand.

Kareem Allam (Vancouver Liberals): Cut the Red Tape

Allam's pitch is pure supply-side reform. He points out that Vancouver is the only city in BC with its own building code — an extra layer he calls unnecessary — and would scrap it in favour of aligning with the provincial standard. He'd also collapse the twelve departments currently involved in approving new housing into one, betting that a simpler bureaucracy means faster, cheaper construction.

Pete Fry (Green Party): Build Smarter, Not Just Faster

Fry's approach leans on design and materials rather than deregulation. The Greens want pre-approved (including prefabricated) housing designs and a partnership with Build Canada Homes to fast-track qualifying projects and attract investment. They're also pushing Canadian procurement and employment requirements for major developments, along with wider use of mass timber and wood-frame construction, which the party argues builds faster and more affordably than conventional methods.

Colleen Hardwick (TEAM): Recover the Balance

Hardwick frames the crisis differently — not as a shortage of rules to cut, but a loss of equilibrium. She argues the city already has enormous unused zoning capacity, citing a 2012 Coriolis report that found roughly 20 years of it — capacity Vancouver kept expanding anyway. During her four years on council, she notes, all 259 rezoning applications that came before it were approved. Her prescription is to slow that cycle, stop driving up land values, and build more efficiently within the zoning the city already has.

That philosophy shows up in TEAM's broader platform, which would replace the city's Official Development Plan with its own Respect for Neighbourhoods framework — addressing concerns tied to the Broadway, Jericho, Rupert & Renfrew, and Villages plans. TEAM also wants a mixed-housing approach (co-ops, rentals, and ownership) scaled to fit existing neighbourhood character, along with reinstated minimum parking requirements and stronger protections for existing affordable rentals.

Rebecca Bligh: Unlock Institutional Land, Reverse the Pause

Bligh's platform targets an overlooked housing source: land held by faith-based and other institutional organizations across the city. Her plan is two-pronged — if an organization wants to redevelop its own land, the City should help fold in housing, childcare, and community services while letting the organization keep serving its community; if it wants to sell, Vancouver should get first right of purchase on qualifying properties, so the land stays in community use instead of going to the highest private bidder.

Bligh is running under the banner of Vote Vancouver, whose platform rests on four pillars. On housing, "Stay in the City You Call Home" commits to building permanently affordable homes for middle-income earners on public land, with not-for-profit childcare included in every new development. "Make a Good Living in Vancouver" would create a small business concierge for permits and regulations, and position the city as a western hub for growing sectors like critical minerals, defence, and tech. "Get Where You Need to Go, Faster and Cheaper" promises free transit for Vancouver youth under 18 (in partnership with TransLink and the province) and an all-electric passenger ferry service. And "Love Your Community" focuses on making City Hall more responsive — real people to talk to, and broken streetlights fixed within 72 hours of being reported. As Bligh put it: "Everyone who helps Vancouver thrive should be able to build a life here."

Ken Sim (ABC, incumbent): A Mixed and Contested Record

As the sitting mayor, Sim's platform is really a record to defend. In February 2025, council passed his motion pausing net-new supportive housing construction, arguing other regional municipalities should share the load. In October 2025, a major ABC proposal to create a city-owned corporation to build over 4,000 market rental units across six sites was voted down by council opposition. On the streamlining side, Sim campaigned on a "3x3x3x1" permit approval system, and ABC councillors have pushed to fast-track rules and repeal select climate-related building regulations to lower construction costs.

Critics — including housing advocates and opposition councillors, among them Bligh — argue that pausing supportive housing while prioritizing market-driven rental risks leaving deep affordability and homelessness needs unaddressed.

The Common Thread

Strip away party labels, and every candidate is chasing the same outcome: more housing, built faster, at a price people can actually afford. Where they diverge is on the lever — deregulation, smarter construction methods, restraint and zoning discipline, unlocking institutional land, or reversing course on supportive housing. That divergence is really the story of this election, and it's why this series will keep digging issue by issue, because affordability, like most things at City Hall, looks different depending on where you're standing.

Editor's note: The policy positions described in this article were sourced directly from each candidate's official website and/or public interviews, and are presented without endorsement. Campaign platforms are subject to change; readers should confirm current details with the relevant campaign prior to voting.

Elke Porter at:
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 TAGS: #VanPoli #VancouverElection2026 #HousingAffordability #VanElxn2026 #VancouverHousing #CivicElection

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