Why voting in Vancouver’s 2026 municipal election could feel like a test

Voting in Vancouver’s municipal election this Saturday might feel a bit like taking a high school exam, with each voter asked to mark their ballot as many as 32 times.

If they also opt for that day’s advance voting location for the provincial election, they could hit 33 votes in a single day.

Vancouverites will be asked to answer three questions relating to borrowing money to fund capital spending and two non-binding plebiscite questions, and choose as many as 10 candidates for city council, nine for school board, seven for park board and one for mayor.

It’s a lot. And this campaign has, at times, felt like a lot — even before a provincial election campaign was dropped on top of it.

Regardless of the result, one thing that will define the 2026 Vancouver election is those two plebiscite questions added by the current council’s ABC majority: one around cracking down on public drug use, and another about converting part of the old St. Paul’s Hospital, or a similar site, into an “involuntary-care” facility for 100 or more people with severe mental-health and substance-use problems.

ABC and the party’s incumbent mayor, Ken Sim, campaigned heavily on what they call the “public safety plebiscite,” with a big advertising buy urging voters to vote ‘yes’ on both measures, and also vote for the whole ABC slate. That has been the key message the party has presented voters as they seek a second term: a vote for ABC is a vote for public safety.

The other parties all blasted the plebiscite as a political stunt that will cost taxpayers $500,000. However, the mayoral candidates differed on how they would respond, if they’re elected and the public supports the plebiscite measures.

Green mayoral candidate Pete Fry said he doesn’t want people continuing to use drugs in public, but instead supports diverting them to daytime shelters or other places with washrooms and counselling services.

Fry did, however, say he would “thoroughly reject” the proposal made by ABC during the campaign (but not actually included in the plebiscite ballot question) to direct police to confiscate people’s drugs, arguing that could push them to do dangerous and potentially violent things to get more drugs. Rebecca Bligh and Kareem Allam have mounted similar arguments during the campaign.

Vote Vancouver mayoral candidate Bligh criticized the plebiscite itself saying, “the mayor of Vancouver doesn’t need a plebiscite to do the job,” but said, “regardless, if voters clearly support either measure, I’ll respect that and act on it.”

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick called the plebiscite “a distraction from Ken Sim’s four years of failure on public safety,” but said, regardless of the outcome of the plebiscite, TEAM will support enforcing existing laws against public drug use, and involuntary care for people with severe addiction and mental illness.