'Let's get to work': Read the full inauguration speech of Vancouver Mayor Pete Fry | Daily Hive

'Let's get to work': Read the full inauguration speech of new Vancouver Mayor Pete Fry

Inauguration ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre of Mayor Pete Fry and the new Vancouver City Council on Nov. 2, 2026. (City of Vancouver)

It is game over for Sim City, as Pete Fry now has the controls.

Pete Fry officially became the mayor of Vancouver this afternoon, opening his term with a call for cooperation and a City of Vancouver that listens to the people it serves.

Fry, who has served as a city councillor for the past eight years, was sworn in at 1:55 p.m. today during the inauguration ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre. This was followed by the swearing-in of the 10 city councillors and Fry’s inauguration speech.

In his address, Fry drew on everyday encounters and conversations with residents, emphasizing their shared hopes for a future in Vancouver. He acknowledged that difficult decisions and disagreements lie ahead, while urging people to remain engaged and work together even when they disagree.

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Joining Fry on Vancouver City Council are Green Party of Vancouver city councillors Annette Reilly, Stephanie Smith, Camil Dumont, and Bridget Burns; COPE city councillors Sean Orr, Chloe Leslie, Devyani Singh, and Solomon Yi-Kieran; OneCity Vancouver city councillor Lucy Maloney; and ABC Vancouver city councillor Mike Klassen.

With Fry included, the Greens hold five of City Council’s 11 seats, followed by COPE with four, and OneCity and ABC with one each. No party holds a majority.

pete fry vancouver city council inauguration nov 20 2026

Inauguration ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre of Mayor Pete Fry and the new Vancouver City Council on Nov. 2, 2026. (City of Vancouver)

City Council’s first public meeting at Vancouver City Hall is scheduled for this evening. They are expected to approve Mayor Fry’s recommendations to fill key statutory positions, including Orr as the first deputy mayor of the term, and the city councillors who will fill the City’s designated seats on the board of directors for Metro Vancouver Regional District.

The Vancouver Park Board and Vancouver School Board will also host their inauguration events this evening. Many other municipal governments in Metro Vancouver and elsewhere in British Columbia will also hold their inauguration ceremonies and first public meetings today.

Below is the full transcript of Mayor Fry’s inauguration speech:

Vancouver Mayor Pete Fry’s inaugural address

Good afternoon, everyone.

I’d like to express my gratitude to the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh community members who joined us here today and thank you for welcoming us as we hold this event on your unceded lands. And I’m grateful for our relationship that we continue to have together.

Thank you as well to everyone who’s here today — all our family, friends, colleagues, City staff, Vancouver Police, Vancouver Fire, fellow members of Council, community leaders, and neighbours from across Vancouver. You’ve taken time out of your day to be here with us, and we feel supported by your presence.

Standing here, I’m feeling a lot of things: gratitude, humility, excitement. And if I’m being honest, just a little bit of awe.

Inauguration ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre of Mayor Pete Fry and the new Vancouver City Council on Nov. 2, 2026. (City of Vancouver)

After all, moments like this don’t belong to any one person; they really belong to many people who helped make them possible. And thinking about the path that brought me here, my mind goes, it doesn’t go to politics first; it instead goes to just the ordinary moments in our city.

Walking through the West End with my wife and turning a 10-minute errand into a 40- minute outing because of the people we’d run into as we went along, or spending evenings at community meetings where neighbours disagreed passionately with one another about various issues, but they stayed in the room because they cared too much to walk away.

Or grey, misty mornings with my dog in the dog park, running into my, yeah, dog park people, but running into my elder Chinese neighbours as they were doing their morning exercises and our communication would be reduced down to familiar nods, big smiles, and my very clumsy attempts at Cantonese.

Or getting on a Mobi bike share after a difficult day at City Hall, coasting towards Olympic Village with the mountain vista just off in the horizon beyond our bustling city and False Creek seawall.

And it reminds me of just how lucky we are to call this place home. The beauty of Vancouver has a way of doing that — the mountains, the water, the neighbourhoods — but above all, the people.

Over the years, experiences like those have shaped how I’ve come to see the city — not as a collection of neighbourhoods, buildings, programmes, or services, but a community of people who care deeply about where they live and who they want to leave it to. They want to leave it a little better than they found it. That’s what inspired me first to get involved in politics, and that’s what continues to inspire me today.

Over the past several months, I have had the chance to speak with literally thousands of people across Vancouver. Some conversations lasted only an hour, but others happened on a doorstep and just lasted a couple of minutes, and many of them have stayed with me.

One afternoon, I met a woman over at Mackenzie Heights, and she’d lived in that neighbourhood for decades. And looking across the street, she began telling me of who lived in each house over the years. She knew the stories of the families where the kids had grown up and where they went to school, the people who had moved away, and the ones who stayed.

And a few days later, I met a young couple, and they talked about their hopes and dreams of building a life here in Vancouver.

And the children that I met across our city, with a special shout-out to the kids at Elsie Roy and the kids at Maple Grove Elementary, who I know are watching on the live stream right now. And to put it in the simplest possible terms, they all wanted a city that’s kind, that’s fun, and that’s welcoming.

So different generations of circumstances, but underneath those conversations was the same aspiration — a future in Vancouver.

And as our campaigns variously continued, that theme surfaced over and over again.

Business owners spoke about the challenges they face, while remaining optimistic about what’s possible.

Students talked enthusiastically about their future.

Parents described the opportunities they want for their children.

Newcomers shared why they chose Vancouver and why they believe it can remain one of the most welcoming places in the world.

Inauguration ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre of Mayor Pete Fry and the new Vancouver City Council on Nov. 2, 2026. (City of Vancouver)

What stayed with me wasn’t how different people viewed the issues in front of us. It was the common thread that ran through almost every conversation — a deep connection to the city, a desire to contribute to it, and a belief that our best days are ahead of us.

That belief is something that I will carry with me into this role.

I may be mayor, but I’m also a neighbour and being a good neighbour means listening carefully. It means showing up. It means working through difficult conversations and staying at the table even when things get complicated, and that’s the approach I hope to bring to City Hall.

There will, of course, be challenges ahead.

Tough decisions are inevitable.

Disagreements will happen. I love you all.

And we’re not going to get things right the first time, but that’s not what defines the city.

What matters is how we respond — that we continue listening and we treat one another with respect, even when we see things differently.

So my hope for the years ahead is that we can set a tone that reflects the very best of Vancouver — a city where disagreement doesn’t have to become division, and where listening is valued as much as speaking. And where people feel heard, even when the final outcome isn’t exactly what they hoped for, because the truth is that good ideas rarely come from just one place.

Throughout my time in public life, the best solutions I’ve encountered didn’t originate at City Hall.

They came from residents. They came from business owners, volunteers, advocates, from people who cared enough to roll up their sleeves and get involved. And that’s one of the things that I love the most about Vancouver.

In every neighbourhood, people are doing the work every day of building a better city.

You can see it everywhere in community centres, neighbourhood houses, local parks, cultural organizations, and on the streets across Vancouver. And most of that work happens quietly without recognition or headlines, yet those efforts are what keep our city strong.

Helping connect those voices, creating spaces for new ideas, and bringing people together around shared goals will be one of my most important responsibilities as mayor, which brings me to why I’m feeling so optimistic today. And it’s not just seeing all your smiling faces. And what this is is quite awe-inspiring, actually, as I look out across this room and see so many familiar faces. It’s very humbling to be here.

Inauguration ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre of Mayor Pete Fry and the new Vancouver City Council on Nov. 2, 2026. (City of Vancouver)

But the reason I’m feeling so optimistic today — that optimism isn’t rooted in a single plan, plot, project, or policy. It’s rooted in all of you. It’s rooted in the people across Vancouver every day.

Acts of generosity and community unfold without fanfare in parks, community centres.

A parks and recreation worker opens a community centre on a rainy Saturday morning with a welcoming smile. A neighbour checks in on someone who maybe needs a hand. A sick brother practising Langar in the Downtown Eastside, offering food freely and without judgement. These are the moments when the city thrives.

It’s also a reminder that Vancouver’s greatest strength has never been found in its buildings, its institutions, or even its natural beauty. It’s found in the people who choose every day to contribute something larger than themselves.

Looking ahead, there’s important work to do. The opportunities before us are significant. So are the challenges and choosing the right path for all of us.

Together, we have a chance to build a future that reflects the best of Vancouver. Welcoming, compassionate, ambitious, connected, and kind.

The trust you’ve placed in me is something I will never take for granted. The trust that you’ve placed in all of us is something that we will never take for granted.

We’re looking forward to listening, learning, and working alongside all of you in the years ahead because the future of Vancouver won’t be shaped by just one mayor and Council.

Like every chapter that came before, it will be written by the community of people who care deeply about this place and one another.

And when people look back on this moment years from now, I hope they won’t remember the day that a new Council and mayor were sworn in. I hope they will remember it as a moment where our city chose to come together. Where we decided that the values that unite us are more important than the challenges in front of us.

And when we choose collaboration over division, hope over cynicism, community over self-interest — it’s magic, folks.

The parks we enjoy, the neighbourhoods we love, the institutions we rely on, the sense of belonging that makes this city feel like home. None of those were created by one person. None of those were created by one Council.

They were gifts from people who cared enough, before us, to think beyond themselves and invest in a future they might never personally see.

Now it’s our turn. Our turn to build on what we’ve inherited and to leave this city stronger, more welcoming, and more connected than we found it.

Years from now, nobody’s going to remember every motion that we passed or every debate that we had or every headline that was written. What they’ll remember is how this city made them feel — whether they felt welcomed, whether they felt heard, whether they felt like they belonged.

If together we can strengthen that sense of belonging, then we would have done something truly meaningful.

A city where you belong, a city that works for you. That work starts today, and I’m honoured to be a part of it.

Thank you for your trust. Thank you for your partnership. Thank you for the opportunity to serve this city we all love. Let’s get to work.

Inauguration ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre of Mayor Pete Fry and the new Vancouver City Council on Nov. 2, 2026. (City of Vancouver)

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