COPE Vancouver unveils its platform with housing a key priority
COPE Vancouver, a municipal party with candidates for City Council, the School Board, and the Park Board in Vancouver’s upcoming municipal election, has unveiled its 2026 platform.
Some of the party’s key promises are to fully fund the city’s library so that it is open seven days a week, bring back the Renter’s Office, triple the empty homes tax, create a climate defence strategy, and fund a universal breakfast and lunch program for schools.
COPE also said it would “conduct a people’s audit to review and report on Ken Sim’s term, identify violations of the public interest, support Vancouver City Workers, and set a path to clean up ABC’s mess.”
“This platform is about the Vancouver we need,” said Sean Orr, a COPE city councillor who is running for re-election. Orr won his council seat in a 2025 by-election.
“We need a city that funds our libraries and public services, protects tenants, builds affordable housing, and protects people from climate events.”
In COPE’s 28-page platform, the party states that “the rich and powerful control our political system, climate change is real and here, and the housing system is rigged against us.”
It adds that “COPE is different because we really fight for what is needed.”
The party points to its historical record — that it has advocated for rent control, empty homes tax, and free transit for kids.
Who is running under the COPE Vancouver banner?
COPE’s mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen stepped out earlier this month to clear the path for a single mayoral candidate for the three progressive parties: COPE, OneCity, and the Vancouver Greens.
OneCity’s mayoral candidate, William Azaroff, later followed suit, throwing his support behind two-term city councillor and Green Party mayoral candidate Pete Fry.
But despite not having a mayoral candidate in the race, the party still has 12 candidates running: four for City Council, four for the School Board, and four for the Park Board.
Sean Orr, Chloe Leslie, Devyani Sign, and Solomon Yi-Kieran are running for City Council, while Suzie Mah, Melanie Cheng, Gwen Giesbrecht, and Derrick O’Keefe are running for the School Board.
Lastly, Tamiko Suzuki, Sacia Burton, Jamie Han, and Cease Wyss are running as Park Board candidates.