John Coupar to run for Vancouver City Council under Liberals civic party | Daily Hive

John Coupar. (Vancouver Liberals)

Former longtime Vancouver Park Board commissioner John Coupar has thrown his hat into the ring for the October 2026 civic election, with the Vancouver Liberals announcing today that he will seek a seat on Vancouver City Council under the party’s banner.

Coupar previously served as a Park Board commissioner from 2011 to 2022, winning three elections under the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) party.

He was the NPA’s mayoral candidate ahead of the October 2022 civic election. However, just over two months before that election, he abruptly ended his candidacy. No specific reason was provided at the time, with Fred Harding taking his place weeks later.

Since then, Coupar has been highly vocal in his opposition to Mayor Ken Sim and ABC Vancouver’s former plan to abolish the separately elected body that governs Vancouver’s parks and recreation system. Last month, Sim formally announced that he had abandoned that controversial plan and that ABC would field candidates for Park Board seats.

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“One of the main reasons I’m running is that I’ve looked at our present mayor’s performance this term, and it’s pretty shocking,” said Coupar in a statement today.

“The first three years, all he did was try to eliminate the democratically elected Park Board, and he failed at just about every other part of his job.”

Coupar’s family also has a long history with the Park Board, as his father was previously a horticulturist with the Park Board for over four decades.

In the October 2024 general provincial election, Coupar also ran for the MLA seat of the riding of Vancouver-Little Mountain under the Conservative Party of BC. He came second ahead of the BC NDP’s Christine Boyle.

According to the party, during Coupar’s previous time in the Park Board, he helped restore the Bloedel Conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park, modernize marine infrastructure at Vanier Park, create special facilities for the Killarney Seniors Centre, and establish the False Creek Dragon Boat facility next to the Olympic Village seawall.

For the upcoming campaign, Coupar wants to focus on modernizing Vancouver’s aging sewage infrastructure to further reduce overflows that contaminate local seawaters, especially in False Creek.

He says he is also drawn to the “big tent” coalition approach of the Vancouver Liberals, led by mayoral candidate Kareem Allam, who was the ABC party’s campaign manager for the 2022 civic election and the party leadership races for Kevin Falcon (BC Liberals/BC United) and Erin O’Toole (Conservative Party of Canada). After the 2022 civic election, he was briefly the chief of staff for Sim’s Mayor’s Office.

john coupar kareem allam vancouver liberals

John Coupar (left) and Kareem Allam (right). (Vancouver Liberals)

The Vancouver Liberals also recently announced that David Clemens will also run for City Council under the party. He is the graduate programs manager at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Moreover, Clemens currently serves as the director-at-large for the Vancouver Kingsway Federal Liberal Association.

Clemens says he supports the party’s commitment to strongly advocate for building the UBC SkyTrain extension, and the amalgamation of the University Endowment Lands — currently under the jurisdiction of the provincial government — with the City of Vancouver.

“As a young person, I left the province as I wasn’t able to afford to live in Vancouver and attend university here due to the high cost of living. It’s a difficult economic landscape right now – people need good jobs, affordable housing, and robust services to continue living in Vancouver,” said Clemens.

“Mark Carney is preparing Canada for the challenges ahead through effective investment and strong fiscal management, and this is what Kareem intends to do for Vancouver with the Vancouver Liberals. Kareem’s leadership is what this city needs right now. The Vancouver Liberals’ plans to complete the SkyTrain extension out to UBC and amalgamate UBC with the rest of Vancouver will jumpstart economic investment in our city.”

However, it should be strongly emphasized that the Vancouver Liberals and Conservative Electors Association (Vancouver Conservatives) are not formally affiliated with the federal and provincial parties of the same name.

David Clemens. (Vancouver Liberals)

A recent survey by local polling firm Research Co. found that Allam was most often identified as the challenger with the strongest chance of defeating Sim. One-in-five (20 per cent) likely voters selected Allam, followed by Green Party of Vancouver mayoral candidate and sitting city councillor Pete Fry at 14 per cent, TEAM For A Livable Vancouver mayoral candidate and former city councillor Colleen Hardwick at 11 per cent, Vote Vancouver mayoral candidate and sitting city councillor Rebecca Bligh at eight per cent, OneCity Vancouver mayoral candidate William Azaroff at five per cent, and COPE mayoral candidate Stephanie Allen at three per cent.

The Greens led when respondents were asked about their overall impressions of Vancouver’s municipal parties. Just over half (51 per cent) held a positive view of the Greens, followed by the Vancouver Liberals at 48 per cent, OneCity at 44 per cent, ABC at 42 per cent, and TEAM at 41 per cent.

The Greens also narrowly led when likely voters were asked which parties’ City Council candidates they would consider supporting in the election. A combined 42 per cent said they would definitely or probably consider voting for Green candidates in City Council, compared with 40 per cent for ABC.

The City Council candidates for TEAM and the Vancouver Liberals each received 35 per cent, followed by OneCity at 34 per cent, Vote Vancouver at 32 per cent, and COPE at 26 per cent.

In addition to Coupar and Clemens, other City Council candidates running under the Vancouver Liberals include former MLA and BC Liberals provincial cabinet minister Moira Stilwell, Victoria Jung (sitting Vancouver School Board trustee and a former member of ABC), Armor Valor (who was not chosen by OneCity’s candidate race this past spring), Michael Wu, and Jessica Walton.

So far, the party has also announced three Park Board candidates: sitting commissioner and former ABC member Scott Jensen, former Park Board commercial services leader Mark Halyk, and Shayla Bird. Brennan Bastyovanszky, another sitting commissioner and former ABC member, has also joined the party, although it remains unclear whether he will seek re-election to the Park Board or run for a City Council seat.

Currently, the new party has a total of three sitting elected officials.

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