Municipal Election 2022: The 15 people running for mayor in Vancouver

This year, a near-record 137 candidates are running for office in Vancouver, including 15 people running for mayor (and 60 for council, 32 for park board and 31 for school board).

For mayor, incumbent Kennedy Stewart is running for city hall’s top job again, along with some familiar names and new faces. As in 2018, candidates’ names will not be listed alphabetically on the ballot but in random order, decided during an earlier draw.

Here are the list of mayoral candidates in the order of that draw.

B.C.’s municipal election is on Oct. 15.

Are we missing something? Email us to let us know. 

Satwant Shottha

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

Shottha said she is running for mayor because she is frustrated about council making decisions about people’s homes without their input. “I want to find out how many other citizens want our mayor and council to leave our homes alone and let us decide what we want to do with our properties without putting sanctions on our properties.” She said she first ran for mayor in 2018 after she was bullied as a City of Vancouver employee. 

Website | Twitter: @sshottha

Kennedy Stewart

Running for Vancouver mayor with Forward Vancouver

Incumbent Stewart ran and won in 2018 as an independent candidate. He launched his own party, Forward Vancouver, and is running six candidates for council. Among his platform is an ambitious plan to build more than 200,000 new homes over the next decade and tougher renter protections. Kennedy proposed increasing the Empty Homes Tax from three to five per cent. He also promised to create a city-funded mobile team to respond to 311 calls for non-emergency addictions and mental health issues.

Website | Twitter: @kennedystewart

Imtiaz Popat

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

Popat is running for mayor because he opposes the Vancouver Plan, which he calls a “displacement plan.” He lives near the Broadway subway line in an older three-level apartment and questions the Kennedy Stewart’s promises about renter protections. “I’m running for Mayor to advocate for accessible and affordable housing, free transit, street cars, bike safety and climate safety,” he said. “I have a vision for a city without hate, police brutality and abuse, and support for community patrols and projects and to promote equity at city hall.”

Popat also ran for mayor in Surrey in 2018. He works as a therapeutic counsellor.

Website | Twitter: @ImtiazPopat

Colleen Hardwick

Running for Vancouver mayor with TEAM

First elected to council in 2018 as an NPA councillor, Hardwick quit the party in 2021 to sit as an independent and formed TEAM for a Livable Vancouver a few months later. She has vowed to focus on

Hardwick has vowed to prioritize core services and curb city hall spending and its dependency on development contributions. She was a proponent of asking residents if they would support hosting the 2030 Winter Games in Vancouver (she ended up withdrawing the motion). Hardwick recently participated in a rally against plans to build a service road through Vanier Park as part of the Squamish First Nation’s Senakw development. If elected, TEAM will replace the Broadway Plan and Vancouver Plan.

Hardwick has worked in film production and digital technology.

Website | Twitter: @CllrHardwick

Leona Brown

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

Leona Brown, who is Gitxsan and Nisga’a, decided to run because she opposes the current mayor. Her priority will be on reconciliation, she said: “There’s too much throwing of that word around, but nobody is showing what they’re doing for reconciliation.”

Brown is an Indigenous cultural facilitator and has done advocacy work on parks and schools and the Vancouver Urban Food Forest Foundation.

Website | Twitter: n/a

Francoise Raunet

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

Raunet said she is running on a platform of “localization” including supporting small-scale entrepreneurs, local supply chains and circular, zero-waste initiatives. “Raised in Vancouver, I’m a passionate, pragmatic, solution-focused, activist who’s tired of protest signs being ignored,” said Raunet in a statement on the city’s candidates profile page. “I entered politics to meet government leaders face-to-face on the debate stage.”

Raunet, a French immersion teacher, has run for the federal and provincial Greens, including in Vancouver-Point Grey in 2011 and 2013, going up against Christy Clark and David Eby.

Website | Twitter: @FrancoiseRaunet

Lewis Villegas

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

Villegas said he wants to bring in a program of “Guaranteed Affordable Houses in Perpetuity” in Canada. He supports a 2030 Olympics bid and will make street parking free from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. He also wants to extend the Canada Line tunnel across Burrard Inlet to Lonsdale Quay and run a streetcar from YVR to Whistler using the Canada Line tunnel. “Streetcars can run rogue on the B.C. Rail lines all the way to Whistler,” he claimed. “And streetcars can operate in the Canada Line tunnels.”

Villegas works in urban design.

Website | Twitter: @villegas4444

Ping Chan

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

Chan, a professional engineer, ran for mayor in 2018. Chan says he will harness geothermal energy to produce “green” electricity to generate revenue to pay for social housing, parks, and electric vehicle charging stations in the city. He also plans to reduce “land taxes” to spur economic growth, and vowed to address social disorder, in part by cleaning streets and alleyways twice a day, adding more public washrooms, and implementing a needle clean-up program in Chinatown. 

He used to work as a manager of public works in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.

Website | Twitter: @drpingchan

Fred Harding

Running for Vancouver mayor with the Non Partisan Association

Harding ran for mayor with the Vancouver 1st party in 2018 and placed sixth. This year, he’s running under the established Non Partisan Association, replacing John Coupar as mayoral candidate after Coupar resigned.Harding had an 18-year career with the West Vancouver Police Department and positions himself as a law-and-order candidate. ““Our city is no longer safe. What’s going on on our city streets today is neither compassion nor compassionate,” he told reporters at the launch of his mayoralty run.

Since 2018, Harding has spent much of his time in China where his wife Mimi Zhang, a pop singer originally from China, received medical treatment for cancer.

Website | Twitter: @npavancouver

Mike Hansen

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

Hansen ran for mayor in 2014 and 2018. In 2014, Hansen told Postmedia he was a recovering crack and alcohol addict and occasional sex-trade customer. He wants more accountability and transparency at city hall.

Hansen has not submitted a bio on the City of Vancouver’s candidates profile page for the 2022 elections.

Website | Twitter: n/a

Ryan Charmley

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

Charmley, a tech entrepreneur, is running to be mayor to “mediate the best outcome” for residents and the future generation. His goals include finding a new approach to tackle homelessness and reduce crime; exploring blockchain and how it can be used to increase public transparency and raise civic funds; and zoning policies to encourage healthy growth and support community resilience. His Twitter bio describes him as a student of philosophy, spirituality and politics.

Website | Twitter: @ryancharmley

Gölök Z Buday

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate

A frequent mayoral candidate, Buday described himself as a libertarian who supports smaller governments and less taxes. His bio says he wants to ban all federal government institutions, including Revenue Canada and the RCMP, within city limits and install a “liberty/decentralist-focused Constitution.”

Buday has ran for mayor in every Vancouver election since 1996 except 1999 and 2014.

Website | Twitter: @gzlfb

Dante Teti

Running for Vancouver mayor as an independent candidate.

Teti has not submitted a bio on the City of Vancouver’s candidates profile page for the 2022 elections.

Website | Twitter: n/a

Ken Sim

Running for Vancouver mayor with A Better City

Sim, a long-time Vancouver entrepreneur, ran for mayor in 2018 under the NPA banner, finishing second to Stewart by 957 votes. This year, Sim is running with the newly-formed ABC party. It describes itself as “modern, inclusive and centrist” and has drawn three of four former NPA councillors: Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato and Sarah Kirby-Yung. Sim has promised to hire 100 more police officers and 100 mental health nurses in Vancouver to help address public safety concerns. He promised to trim the fat in city expenses, while not reducing services. He also said he will re-start the school liaison officer program in Vancouver schools.

Ken was born and raised in Vancouver and founded two Vancouver-based companies, Rosemary Rocksalt and Nurse Next Door. Sim and his wife Teena have four sons. 

Website | Twitter: @KenSimCity

Mark Marissen

Running for Vancouver mayor with Progress Vancouver

After decades of working behind-the-scenes as a political operative, this is Marissen’s first time to run for office as mayoral candidate for Progress Vancouver. Marissen has pledged to hire a night-time economy commissioner, focusing on revitalizing Granville Street, and to double the number of food truck permits in the city. Campaign promises also include using city land to build affordable housing and promising shovels in the ground on the UBC SkyTrain extension by the end of his first term.

Marrisen is a longtime Liberal public affairs strategist and principal of public affairs firm Burrard Strategy. He is the ex-husband of former B.C. premier Christy Clark.

Website | Twitter: @marissenmark