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Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has faced something of an uphill battle in terms of his own popularity as of late. After his party got crushed in the recent byelection, Sim has been on a mission to regain some goodwill with the people of Vancouver. 

He’s been dressing more professionally and showing up at events—particularly those around the upcoming FIFA World Cup—and trying to be an ambassador for the city. He’s also clearly trying to show Vancouverites he can save them money before an election, as evidenced by his 0 percent increase in property tax. That last move came under a lot of fire from some corners, and it remains to be seen whether Sim will be able to cut taxes and also avoid some hard cuts to services that will continue to piss off the city’s populace. 

There is, as we noted above, an election coming this year. And if that election is fought on the same fronts that the byelection was (the biggest ballot box issue was arguably whether or not the politician in question was affiliated with Sim), the mayor and his ABC party will be in trouble. 

Of course, byelections and their low turnout (the recent one had 15 percent) are not the best way to take stock of how an electorate feels. So we don’t ultimately know how people are feeling toward Sim and ABC of late. 

There are challengers lurking in wait for the October municipal election. 

The left-leaning OneCity is going to chose between William Azaroff and Amanda Burrows for its mayoral candidate, while old Sim allies in councillor Rebecca Bligh and former chief of staff Kareem Allam have announced campaigns as well. Green Party councillor Pete Fry looks set to make his mayoral ambitions known later this month. Other parties like COPE, the Green Party, and TEAM could also be putting forward a mayoral candidate. 

All of those parties and potentially others will be running candidates for council. Last election, ABC emerged with a supermajority on council. It still holds a majority, even after losing Bligh, who served as an independent before creating her own party, Vote Vancouver. 

But it’s becoming clear that, if the trends in the byelection hold, we will see some shakeup in terms of Vancouver’s current council makeup. If Ken Sim’s mayoralty becomes the main issue at the ballot box (arguably it was during the byelection), councillors may be judged on whether they can differentiate themselves from the mayor. 

With no party currently leading the charge, seats are up for grabs. Let’s rank the councillors based on how much they’ve each distanced themselves from Sim, keeping in mind that if the byelection turns out to be a blip, or if Sim starts winning back hearts and minds, closeness to him may be considered a positive thing. 

We’ll rank from 10 (most distant) to 1, using tiers to differentiate. 

Couldn’t Be More Distant Tier

10. Sean Orr, COPE

Orr won the byelection with almost 35,000 votes, whereas Sim’s two candidates didn’t cross 10,000. Orr also used slogans like “Evict Ken Sim” and “Grill Ken Sim” as his rallying cries.

It’s safe to say that Orr, who worked for years as a dishwasher and describes himself as a socialist, is about as far away as can be from businessman Sim on most policy points. 

Extreme Distance Tier

9. Pete Fry, Green Party

8. Lucy Maloney, OneCity

Fry and Maloney are opposition councillors to the ruling ABC party, and both have had their run-ins with Sim and his caucus. Fry has essentially become the counterpoint voice in the media to most everything that ABC tries to implement, while Sim has targeted OneCity as one of his main competitors in the upcoming election. 

Trying to Distance, But… Tier

7. Rebecca Bligh, Vote Vancouver

Bligh left the ABC caucus in February of last year and has since started her own party that she intends to run for mayor with. She was kicked out after speaking against the party’s plan to pause new supportive housing in the Downtown Eastside. She’s also voted against ABC on numerous occasions since then. 

But… Bligh is going to have a tough time completely distancing herself from many of the decisions that she went along with as an ABC councillor. That includes voting to get rid of the democratically elected Park Board. Think that’ll come up during the mayoral debates? We do. 

Staying Loyal So Far, But… Tier

6. Lisa Dominato, ABC

5. Peter Mieszner, ABC

Dominato spoke out against Bligh’s exile, and both she and Mieszer have voted against the rest of the ABC team on some issues. Those Mieszner votes haven’t been on particularly divisive topics, but it’s interesting to see if there’s a crack forming there as these two councillors plot their own paths toward re-election. 

Honestly, Mieszner probably doesn’t belong in this tier as we have a harder time seeing him split off from ABC than we do imagining Dominato doing the same thing, but he has enough votes against the party that it must be noted. 

Loyal But Establishing Themselves Separately Tier

4. Sara Kirby-Yung, ABC

3. Mike Klassen, ABC

Two of Sim’s most loyal soldiers haven’t wavered much or at all from the party line. But they’ve both been making moves to get their own faces out there. 

Kirby-Yung in particular has made actual change happen for struggling restaurants and businesses, and entrepreneurs around town are respectful and grateful for her work. She also made city-famous the line, “the Wild West of fucking procedure". Which has to count as one of the more memorable city council moments in ABC’s tenure. 

The hallmarks of Klassen’s tenure remain showing up at an impressive amount of community events (and posting the photos of himself at said events on social media), caring deeply about Vancouver’s heritage and history, and having absolutely no sense of humour in this interaction with local comedian Matt Clarke. 

(Says Clarke to the Straight: “He didn’t look at me; he just stared at his monitor harder than he was staring before.”)

Essentially Ken Sim in a Different Body Tier

2. Lenny Zhou, ABC

1. Brian Montague, ABC

Zhou garnered the least amount of votes among ABC councillors in the 2022 election and has steadfastly toed the party line. He seems like a nice enough guy, but he’s also gotten in numerous Twitter fights, spoken out against an arts group while voting against it getting funding, and generally stapled himself to Sim’s persona writ large. 

Meanwhile, Montague has already said he won’t seek re-election, the only one of the ABC councillors to do so thus far. And that’s a good thing, since the former police officer seems to despise everything about the city he works in except its cops. It’s also a good thing for his personal reputation—Montague, who lives in North Van, was set to get absolutely destroyed in the next election if he did run. 

Here’s a prediction for you: Montague will be the last non-Vancouver resident to hold a spot on the city’s council. And that’s not to say that a non-Vancouver resident couldn’t do a good job on council. It’s more to say that Montague really hasn’t.