It's official: Vancouver will vote for two new city councillors this April | Daily Hive

Vancouver City Council, November 2022 inauguration. (City of Vancouver)

Vancouver residents will be heading back to the polls on Saturday, April 5, 2025, to participate in the City Council by-election.

This civic voting day was confirmed by the City of Vancouver today, shortly after City Council’s procedural approvals relating to the matter.

This mid-term by-election is being held to fill two recently vacated city councillor seats.

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This follows the resignation of OneCity councillor Christine Boyle on December 12, 2024, after she was elected as the MLA for Vancouver-Little Mountain under the BC NDP last fall. On January 15, 2025, Green councillor Adriane Carr also announced her resignation, citing frustrations with working alongside Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC Vancouver-led majority in City Council and a desire to spend more time with her family.

April 5 is the general voting day for the by-election, which is scheduled to occur from 8 am to 8 pm across 24 community centres and at Vancouver City Hall.

There will also be an advance voting opportunity on March 26 and April 1 from 8 am to 8 pm at Vancouver City Hall only, as well as a vote-by-mail opportunity, with vote-by-mail package requests beginning on March 3.

The nomination period for the by-election is from February 18 to 28. The candidates will be announced by the City on February 28, and the official campaign period will begin on March 8.

According to the City, to be eligible to vote, you must be at least 18 years old by April 5, be a Canadian citizen, have lived in British Columbia for at least six months immediately before registration day, and live in Vancouver or own property registered in their name for at least 30 days before registering to vote. Property owners who do not live in Vancouver may still be eligible to vote as Non-Resident Property Electors.

City of Vancouver 2022 election voting location at the Vancouver Public Library in downtown Vancouver. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

So far, as of the time of writing, the TEAM For A Livable Vancouver party of former city councillor Colleen Hardwick has confirmed it will run two candidates. Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC Vancouver party, which holds a super majority in City Council, is also expected to run candidates, as will the Greens of Vancouver party and the OneCity Vancouver party. At this early time, no party has named anyone specific to run.

By-elections in Vancouver are rare, with the last by-elections held in 2017, 1992, and 1985.

The 2017 by-election was held on October 14, 2017 — approximately three and a half months after Vision Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs vacated the city councillor seat to become the chief of staff for the then-new BC NDP provincial government led by John Horgan.

The Vision Vancouver-led City Council was unable to hold onto that seat in the 2017 by-election; Hector Bremner of the YES Vancouver party went on to win the by-election with 13,372 votes — ahead of independent Jean Swanson with 10,263, Pete Fry of the Green Party of Vancouver with 9,759, Judy Graves of OneCity with 6,327, and Diego Cardona of Vision Vancouver with 5,411.

The 2017 by-election cost $1.5 million, and the voter turnout was 10.99%. In contrast, the 2025 by-election is estimated to cost $2 million.

The October 2022 general civic election cost $4.4 million, and it had a voter turnout of 36.3%.

Vancouver residents will return to the polls for the general civic election on October 17, 2026 — about 18.5 months or 560 days after the by-election.

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