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The October municipal election is getting clearer by the day, as actual names and faces get attached to party slates. Today, progressive party OneCity, which is running William Azaroff as its mayoral candidate, announced its candidates for council, school board, and park board.
The party had a wealth of candidates on its internal ballot and held a competitive contest to determine who would be running under its brand. The contest attracted candidates across multiple industries, including high-profile names and people who had run for office previously.
For city council, a coalition built inside the party’s nominees was quite successful. Three of the four candidates that formed the OneCity Builders slate were elected, with City of Vancouver transportation planner Iona Bonamis, longtime civic journalist Frances Bula, and managing director of the Co-Operative Housing Federation of BC Jarrett Hagglund making the cut.
Joining them was not OneCity Builders member Mike Tan, but instead Indigenous rights lawyer Caitlin Stockwell. Those four will join current councillor Lucy Maloney.
That left out some heavy hitters with name recognition, including lawyer Peter Waldkirch, who made a name for himself with his sometimes hilariously incredulous tweets about City Council goings-on; data analyst and blogger Russell Vvong, who previously ran for council with former mayor Kennedy Stewart’s party, Forward Together; and Vancouver historian, writer, and community advocate Aaron Chapman.
For school board, the party nominated Steve Cardwell, former VSB Superintendent Steve Cardwell, health researcher Krista Sigurdson, Helping Hands Youth Foundation founder Christopher Lee, high school teacher and union leader Rory Brown, and inclusive education expert Sherry Breshears.
For park board, the party put forward public servant Dominic Denofrio, former park board commissioner John Irwin, and biologist and labour activist Tyler Petersen.
Some other parties have already narrowed down their nomination lists or are gearing up to do so. TEAM for a Livable Vancouver has announced some candidates, as have the Vancouver Liberals, while COPE is slated to have its vote today.
The Green Party recently finalized its candidate list (which only included four of its agreed-upon maximum five council candidates—AKA Pete Fry probably isn’t running for mayor), while it’s assumed that the current sitting ABC councillors—other than Brian Montague, who doesn’t live in Vancouver—will be running again.