It's official: William Azaroff selected as OneCity Vancouver's mayoral candidate | Daily Hive

William Azaroff/Supplied

With about eight months to go until Vancouver residents head to the polls for the 2026 civic election, William Azaroff was officially confirmed Wednesday night as the OneCity Vancouver party’s mayoral candidate following a vote of the party’s membership.

Azaroff — the CEO of non-profit housing developer and operator Brightside Community Homes and a former executive at Vancity Credit Union — won the nomination with 1,324 votes, defeating Amanda Burrows, who received 929. The party announced the results during an event at York Theatre.

“We are so proud of the inspiring, motivating, and amazing campaigns run by Amanda and William,” reads a statement by the party late Wednesday evening.

“We are so proud of every single member who cast a ballot for this election to choose our next mayor. We are over 2,800 strong, and we’re just getting started. William Azaroff will lead our party into the next election, and we are thrilled to build our team around him!”

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Burrows, the executive director of the First United Church Community Ministry Society, was the only other candidate in the race.

The result caps a closely watched internal race for the party as it looks to position itself ahead of the next municipal election.

Over the last few weeks leading up to the party nomination, Azaroff announced a range of early campaign promises, such as building 4,000 affordable homes on land owned by the City of Vancouver, making it easier to build childcare facilities, synchronizing Vancouver’s traffic lights under a new technological network to reduce congestion and speed up TransLink buses through traffic-signal priority, and expediting the renewal of Britannia’s aging civic hub of community and recreational facilities.

William Azaroff. (William Azaroff)

Based on announcements to date, Azaroff will compete for the mayoral seat against incumbent Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver, sitting city councillor Pete Fry of the Green Party of Vancouver, Kareem Allam of the newly formed Vancouver Liberals, and sitting city councillor Rebecca Bligh of the new Vote Vancouver party.

Late last year, former mayor Kennedy Stewart told Daily Hive Urbanized he is seriously considering throwing his hat into the race. It should also be noted that his party, Forward Together, which was created ahead of the 2022 civic election, was dissolved in 2025.

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver party — led by former city councillor Colleen Hardwick — and the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) are also expected to confirm mayoral candidates of their own.

The civic election is scheduled for Oct. 17, 2026.

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