The 2026 Vancouver Civic Election is just over a month away, and there are some pretty big decisions left to be made when it comes to mayoral candidate selections.
While each party had already selected a mayoral candidate, three parties — COPE Vancouver, OneCity, and the Vancouver Green Party — were potentially going to select a unity candidate.
COPE Vancouver’s announcement today further reinforces that decision.
Stephanie Allen was COPE’s mayoral candidate selection. Today, she and COPE announced a joint decision to end her mayoral campaign, urging progressives to get behind one candidate.
“It has been the privilege of a lifetime to stand as the mayoral candidate for COPE, a party with the deepest history of fighting the power of the super rich and showing up for the poor and working-class people in our city,” Allen said
“While I am announcing the end of my campaign for mayor, I am also here today to recommit to our movement to the fight for the people of this city.”
Earlier in 2026, the three parties — COPE, OneCity, and Green Party — agreed to reduce the number of mayoral candidates.
Allen says she’s encouraging the other candidates in the race to “also do the right thing, show integrity, and narrow the mayoral field to the progressive candidate best positioned to evict Ken Sim.”
“We can’t put our egos ahead of doing the right thing for Vancouver,” she said.
Allen says the decision means COPE’s candidates “across all boards” will be working with a progressive mayor instead of Sim.
COPE co-chair Sam Smart thanked Stephanie for her contributions.
“This decision is about more than the success of our party. It’s about serving the people of Vancouver. We believe real leadership means listening to the people, and the people are speaking. We urge other progressive candidates who are behind in the race for mayor to listen before it is too late,” Smart said.
COPE’s announcement urges all parties to come to an agreement as soon as possible.
We have reached out to the Green Party and OneCity for comment.