Fry Leads Sim In Tight Vancouver Mayoral Poll Race

Green Party candidate Pete Fry is narrowly ahead of incumbent Mayor Ken Sim in Vancouver’s mayoral race, according to a CityNews and OMNI TV poll released Oct. 9, 2026. The survey found Fry leading among decided voters as candidates campaign on affordability, housing, safety and city governance.

The Canada Pulse Insights poll surveyed 500 adult Vancouver residents online between Sept. 28 and Oct. 6. Fry received 28 per cent support among all respondents and Sim received 27 per cent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Among decided voters who said they would definitely vote or had already voted, Fry led 29 per cent to 28 per cent. Kareem Allam of the Vancouver Liberals followed with 19 per cent, while Colleen Hardwick had 13 per cent, Rebecca Bligh had seven per cent and Muhammad Ahmad had three per cent.

Canada Pulse Insights CEO John Wright described the contest as a fragmented field with two leading groups of voters.

"Very fragmented field," said John Wright, CEO of Canada Pulse Insights.

Wright said the race has developed around different priorities among supporters of the leading candidates.

"Very apparent there are two different streams going head-to-head here," said John Wright, CEO of Canada Pulse Insights.

Fry, a Vancouver city councillor first elected in 2018, has centered his campaign on housing affordability, accountability and environmental policies. His Green Party platform proposes a municipal housing bond program, a fund to protect rental buildings at risk of redevelopment and a new affordability measure based on household income.

"City policies should be judged by whether they improve affordability for residents, not by whether they meet outdated or market-based benchmarks," the Green Party platform states.

In an interview with the Vancouver Sun, Fry said his priorities for the next mayoral term would focus on living costs, governance and community safety.

"The top three are cost of living, good governance and community safety," said Pete Fry, Green Party mayoral candidate.

Fry also addressed concerns about public drug use and safety, saying the city should better manage public spaces while recognizing limits on municipal authority.

"The reality is that consumption and trafficking of drugs is a criminal issue. So, it’s not really the jurisdiction of the city of Vancouver per se. What I believe that we can do, and we have not done, is to better manage the public spaces.

And we can do that by saying, you know what, you can’t do that there. You can do it over there. And we can create spaces that are a little bit more sanctioned and places where it’s not acceptable," said Pete Fry, Green Party mayoral candidate.

Fry said his housing approach would include more mid-rise construction and changes to how Vancouver evaluates new development.

"There’s no easy answer. And certainly, we see right now, with this imperative to build more housing, nothing’s getting built. The province has imposed targets on us to build more housing. Concrete tower construction is pretty much stalled out," said Pete Fry, Green Party mayoral candidate.

The election will decide Vancouver’s mayor, 10 city councillors, seven Park Board commissioners and nine Vancouver School Board trustees. Voting day is Oct. 17, 2026, with advance voting scheduled during the campaign period.