OneCity confirms 13 candidates for Vancouver election, including Frances Bula | Daily Hive

OneCity confirms 13 candidates for Vancouver civic election, including Frances Bula

Frances Bula (OneCity Vancouver)

Veteran local political and urban issues journalist Frances Bula is among the officially confirmed candidates set to appear on the October 2026 civic election ballot, under OneCity Vancouver’s slate of 13 candidates spanning Vancouver City Council, Vancouver Park Board, and Vancouver School Board.

OneCity announced yesterday that Bula will run for Vancouver City Council alongside the party’s confirmed city councillor candidates, incumbent city councillor and cycling activist Lucy Maloney, urban planner Iona Bonamis, co-operative housing advocate Jarrett Hagglund, and Indigenous rights lawyer Caitlin Stockwell.

“I’m thrilled to run with candidates who have such tremendous track records of local leadership,” said OneCity mayoral candidate William Azaroff in a statement.

“Candidates who will fight for affordable housing, arts and culture, better public transit, and strong public services for everyone. No question this is the team who is going to send Ken Sim and ABC packing in October.”

The party’s membership selected its candidates from a pool of dozens of hopeful contestants.

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Bula spent more than four decades in journalism, including 30 years covering civic politics and urban affairs for the Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail. She has reported extensively on issues ranging from housing and major building development projects to drug policy and public transit. As well, she taught journalism at Langara College and the University of British Columbia.

Bonamis, who currently works as a lead planner at TransLink, previously ran with OneCity in the 2022 civic election.

Hagglund currently serves as managing director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC and has previously worked for former premier John Horgan and former B.C. environment minister George Heyman.

Meanwhile, Stockwell is entering the City Council race after previously running for Park Board in 2022. The party described her as a longtime climate advocate and Indigenous rights lawyer focused on housing and community investment issues.

The party’s Park Board slate includes former Park Board commissioner John Irwin — who was first elected under the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) in the 2018 civic election, before switching to Vision Vancouver ahead of the 2022 civic election — as well as BC NDP constituency advisor Dominic Denofrio, and biologist and labour activist Tyler Petersen. During Irwin’s previous term on the Park Board, he became known for opposing injunctions targeting encampments in parks, including Oppenheimer and CRAB Park, and advocating for bike lanes.

For the School Board trustees race, OneCity confirmed candidates Steve Cardwell, Krista Sigurdson, Christopher Lee, Rory Brown, and Sherry Breshears. The group includes former educators, researchers, labour advocates, and community organizers with backgrounds in public education governance and youth advocacy.

OneCity’s number of candidates aligns with the agreement the party made last month with the COPE and Green parties to form a left-wing/progressive alliance that sets a cap on the number of candidates each party will field in each of the three chambers — a strategy intended to limit competition and improve the overall chances of left-wing/progressive candidates being elected. Each party is capped at up to 13 candidates, with OneCity specifically limited to up to five candidates for City Council, three candidates for Park Board, and five candidates for School Board.

As well, the three parties will try to reach an agreement on the best left-wing/progressive mayoral candidate, suggesting that two of the mayoral candidates will eventually agree to drop out closer to the election and support the strongest mayoral candidate representing their segment of the political spectrum. Sitting city councillor Pete Fry is the Green party’s mayoral candidate, while former BC Housing vice president and Hogan’s Alley activist Stephanie Allen was named as COPE’s mayoral candidate last week.

As part of the agreement, all three parties agreed to confirm their candidates within the first half of May.

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