B.C. municipal election results: Pete Fry beats Ken Sim to become Vancouver's 1st Green Party mayor

New mayors elected in B.C.'s largest cities, including Vancouver and Surrey, as voters opt for change

Pete Fry unseats Ken Sim, will be Vancouver's next mayor

You can never summarize 161 municipal elections in a single post, but if you were to try tonight, it would be the story of change — but for the most part, measured change.

Vancouver’s Ken Sim, Surrey’s Brenda Locke, Kamloops’s Reid Hamer-Jackson and Prince George’s Simon Yu all went down to defeat, but they lost to current councillors or previous mayors.

In Victoria, Nanaimo and Kelowna, mayors that won big four years ago were re-elected, but by smaller amounts.

Vancouver shifted to the left, New Westminster shifted to the right, Surrey shifted back to Doug McCallum. But those changes were less because candidates made bold promises, and more about a change in leadership and tone at city hall.

We’ll see in four years whether these new mayors fare better than the old ones — and whether NDP Leader David Eby fares better in the provincial election seven days from now.

If you're looking for detailed results for these major cities, tap the links below:

On a night when new mayors were elected in municipalities like Vancouver, Prince George and Kamloops, some managed to avoid what appears to be an anti-incumbency trend.

Mike Hurley was comfortably re-elected in Burnaby with almost 29,000 votes, nearly triple the number of second-place candidate Heymann Yip.

Mike Little of the District of North Vancouver earned 51 per cent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

In Abbotsford, Ross Siemens garnered 62 per cent of the vote.

On Vancouver Island, Leonard Krog faced a tighter race, winning with more than 10,000 votes, ahead of Sarah Lovegrove, who finished with 8,400.

Voters in Delta, B.C.'s eighth-largest city by population, have chosen a new mayor after many fireworks on council over the last four years.

Melissa Granum has unseated George Harvie to become the new mayor, beating out former councillor Dylan Kruger in the process.

Kruger and Harvie feuded on council for years, with Kruger voting to remove Harvie as chair of the Metro Vancouver Regional District and limit some of his powers as mayor.

Ultimately, voters chose to sidestep both men and elect Granum, who spent over a decade with the Delta Police Department and argued for a complete change of pace at council.

Incumbent Tom Dyas has held off challenger Ron Cannan to be re-elected mayor of Kelowna, getting 19,451 votes to Cannan's 18,482, according to preliminary results.

Dyas ran a campaign focused on public safety when he won the top job in 2022, in what was his first elected government role. Cannan was a former MP for the area and an incumbent councillor.

Dyas has pledged a "treatment first" approach to dealing with public drug use, and wrote to the federal government asking for them to shut down a supervised drug consumption site in the city.

Rob Howard has won the race to replace Malcolm Brodie as mayor of Richmond, with Brodie having endorsed Howard to fill his shoes after he left the top job after 25 years.

Howard held off incumbent councillor Alexa Loo by 880 votes, according to preliminary results, with another incumbent councillor, Kash Heed, finishing with 11,111 votes.

All three have ties to the former B.C. Liberal Party, with both Howard and Heed former MLAs and Loo a former candidate.

Dan Ashton has just been elected as Penticton’s mayor, beating out another incumbent in Julius Bloomfield and four other candidates.

Ashton is no stranger to the mayor's chair, having served in the position from 2008 to 2013. He also served as the MLA for Penticton-Summerland until 2024.

"I think I am very fortunate to come back home. I spent about 12 years in Victoria, and Penticton is my home and always has been," he said.

Ashton said he is excited to tackle the issues like public safety, bike lanes and city spending.

There has been a mix of cheers, tears and disappointment at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre as candidates find out whether their campaigns were successful.

Voters in Langford, B.C., have voted to bring Stew Young back to the mayor's office.

The vote was a rematch of the previous election, when Young was defeated by newcomer Scott Goodmanson after having served as Langford's mayor since the city was incorporated in 1992.

Young says he took his previous campaign for granted, after running for many years unopposed. This year, he says he knocked on doors for the first time and learned how to use social media.

"I'm excited to get back to work, and working hard for the City of Langford," he said in a call from his victory party.

The two incumbent mayors in the Township and City of Langley are out, according to preliminary results, continuing a trend of anti-incumbency throughout the Lower Mainland.

Jay Lundgren defeated Eric Woodward in the larger Township of Langley. While the mayor himself is relatively inexperienced in politics, his Langley Strong slate featured a number of incumbents who won nearly all of the council seats.

Meanwhile, in Langley City, Delaney Mack defeated Nathan Pachal after feuding with him for years on council. All of her Achieving for Langley City slate won their council seats.

CBC News is projecting Marianne Alto will be re-elected mayor of Victoria, holding off challenger Bruce McGuigan.

Alto is set to lead B.C.'s capital city for a second term, after previously serving as a councillor for 12 years.

Victoria voters seem to have overwhelmingly endorsed amalgamating with nearby Saanich, according to the preliminary results of a non-binding referendum question.

But Saanich voters, on the other hand, seem to have rejected the idea, according to preliminary results — likely meaning the question of amalgamation on south Vancouver Island remains an open one.

Pete Fry has been elected the mayor of Vancouver, CBC News projects, defeating incumbent Ken Sim.

Fry, the son of longtime Liberal MP Hedy Fry, will be the first Green Party mayor in Vancouver’s history.

The two-term councillor was one of a number of candidates looking to unseat Sim. Candidates William Azaroff from OneCity Vancouver and Stephanie Allen of COPE ended their campaigns to narrow the field.

"In order to get Ken Sim out, we have to unite behind a single progressive mayoral candidate," Azaroff said last month.

It's a strategy that appears to have worked.

In his concession speech, Ken Sim congratulated Pete Fry for his victory in Vancouver's mayoral race, saying he respects the two-term Green councillor.

"Contrary to what's portrayed out in the media there, we actually do like each other," Sim said. "We get along."

It was a shift in tone from the campaign trail, which saw Sim release an attack ad aimed at Fry, positioning him as having to partner with COPE Coun. Sean Orr, who has been the target of Sim's criticism in the past.

Orr filed a lawsuit in March, alleging Sim defamed him at an event with Chinese-language media in February with comments that the COPE councillor distributed illegal drugs.

Sim later apologized for the remarks and acknowledged they were untrue, while his legal filings deny that his remarks harmed Orr's reputation.

On Saturday, Sim appeared to take a conciliatory tone.

"It isn't the decision we wanted but it's one we have to respect, and that's democracy. I think we all are here because we want to see what's best for the city," Sim said. "Make no mistake about it: Pete has my unwavering support. I will help him any which way I can so he can succeed — so Vancouver can succeed."