2011 Vancouver municipal election

2011 Vancouver municipal election

November 19, 2011 (2011-11-19)
11 seats in Vancouver City Council
Turnout	35.0% 4.2 pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Gregor Robertson Suzanne Anton Adriane Carr (de facto) Party Vision NPA Green Alliance Vision-COPE Leader's seat Mayor Ran for Mayor (lost) Councillor Last election 8 seats, 54.39% 1 seat, 39.26% 0 seats, N/A Seats won 8 2 1 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 77,005 58,152 N/A Percentage 53.17% 40.15% N/A Swing 1.21% 0.89% N/A   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Ellen Woodsworth (de facto) Randy Helten Party COPE NSV Alliance Vision-COPE Leader's seat Ran for Councillor (lost) Ran for Mayor (lost) Last election 2 seats, N/A N/A Seats won 0 0 Seat change 2 Popular vote N/A 4,077 Percentage N/A 2.77% Swing N/A N/A
Mayor before election Gregor Robertson Vision Elected mayor Gregor Robertson Vision

The City of Vancouver held a municipal election on November 19, 2011, along with other municipalities and regional districts in British Columbia. All local government elections were for a three-year period. The ballot elected one mayor, 10 councillors, nine school board trustees and seven park board commissioners. A $180 million capital borrowing plan was also put to a vote.

Incumbent mayor Gregor Robertson and the Vision Vancouver Party sought and won their second term in office following their victory in the 2008 election. All Vision Vancouver candidates won seats in their respective categories.

Suzanne Anton lost her bid as mayor but the NPA team gained seats in council, park board and school board. COPE was nearly wiped out this election, losing both seats in city council. Its only elected official was school board trustee incumbent Allan Wong. On December 8, 2013, Wong resigned from the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) and joined Vision as a sitting trustee.

The Green Party of Vancouver had its first elected city councillor with Adriane Carr, but lost its incumbent seat on the park board. New party Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver (NSV) did not win any seats in council. NSV leader Randy Helten placed a distant third in the mayoral race.

Candidates and results

The nomination period officially opened on October 4, 2011, and closed on October 14, 2011. This was the second election where Vision Vancouver and COPE signed an electoral agreement to support each other's candidates for election.

(I) denotes incumbents.

Mayor

Poster from the 2011 Vancouver municipal elections

Twelve candidates sought election to the position of mayor. Four were affiliated with a political party and eight were independents. Incumbent mayor Gregor Robertson of Vision Vancouver was re-elected.

Candidate name		Party affiliation	Votes	% of votes	Elected
(I) Gregor Robertson		Vision Vancouver	77,005	53.17	X
Suzanne Anton		Non-Partisan Association	58,152	40.15
Randy Helten		Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver	4,007	2.77
Gerry McGuire		Vancouver Citizen's Voice	1,195	0.83
Sam Pelletier		Independent	443	0.31
Darrell Zimmerman		Independent	426	0.29
Dubgee		Independent	419	0.29
Robin Lawrance		Independent	353	0.24
Victor B. Paquette		Independent	333	0.23
Lloyd Alan Cooke		Independent	310	0.21
Menard Caissy		Independent	288	0.20
Gölök Zoltán Buday		Independent	268	0.19

City councillors

Ten councillors were elected out of 41 candidates. Of the candidates, 28 were affiliated with a political party, and 13 were independent. Seven incumbent councillors sought re-election: six from Vision Vancouver and one from COPE. Of those subsequently elected, Vision Vancouver held seven seats, the NPA two and the Green Party of Vancouver one.

Candidate name		Party affiliation	Votes	% of votes	Elected
(I) Raymond Louie		Vision Vancouver	63,273	43.69	X
(I) Kerry Jang		Vision Vancouver	61,931	42.76	X
(I) Heather Deal		Vision Vancouver	61,368	42.37	X
(I) Andrea Reimer		Vision Vancouver	60,593	41.84	X
(I) Tim Stevenson		Vision Vancouver	56,638	39.11	X
(I) Geoff Meggs		Vision Vancouver	56,184	38.79	X
Tony Tang		Vision Vancouver	53,873	37.20	X
Elizabeth Ball		Non-Partisan Association	51,607	35.63	X
George Affleck		Non-Partisan Association	51,145	35.32	X
Adriane Carr		Green Party of Vancouver	48,648	33.59	X
(I) Ellen Woodsworth		Coalition of Progressive Electors	48,557	33.53
Bill Yuen		Non-Partisan Association	48,407	33.42
Mike Klassen		Non-Partisan Association	47,868	33.05
Ken Charko		Non-Partisan Association	45,373	31.33
Bill McCreery		Non-Partisan Association	45,114	31.15
Francis Wong		Non-Partisan Association	44,707	30.87
Tim Louis		Coalition of Progressive Electors	43,926	30.33
Sean Bickerton		Non-Partisan Association	43,289	29.89
Joe Carangi		Non-Partisan Association	41,460	28.63
RJ Aquino		Coalition of Progressive Electors	39,054	26.97
Jason Lamarche		Non-Partisan Association	37,286	25.75
Sandy Garossino		Independent	20,866	14.41
Elizabeth Murphy		Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver	19,644	13.56
Nicole Benson		Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver	17,983	12.42
Terry Martin		Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver	13,025	8.99
Marie Kerchum		Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver	12,614	8.71
Chris Shaw		De-Growth Vancouver	8,219	5.68
Ian Gregson		De-Growth Vancouver	7,872	5.44
Amy Fox		Independent	6,499	4.49
Kelly Alm		Independent	5,525	3.82
Grant Fraser		Independent	4,758	3.29
Chris Masson		De-Growth Vancouver	4,690	3.24
Lauren R.I.C.H. Gill		Independent	4,682	3.23
Michael Singh Dharni		Independent	4,167	2.88
Marc Tan Nguyen		Independent	4,118	2.84
Rick Orser		Independent	3,996	2.76
Wendythirteen		Independent	3,926	2.71
Bang Nguyen		Independent	3,826	2.64
Cord (Ted) Copeland		Independent	3,587	2.48
Aaron R.I.C.H. Spires		Independent	2,200	1.52
R H Maxwell N Bur		Independent	1,955	1.35

Park board commissioners

Seven commissioners were elected out of 21 candidates. Of the candidates, 15 were affiliated with a political party, and six were independent. Four incumbent commissioners sought re-election: three from Vision Vancouver and one from the Green Party of Vancouver. Of the elected commissioners, Vision held five seats and the NPA two.

Candidate name		Party affiliation	Votes	% of votes	Elected
(I) Constance Barnes		Vision Vancouver	63,952	44.16	X
(I) Sarah Blyth		Vision Vancouver	62,198	42.95	X
(I) Aaron Jasper		Vision Vancouver	58,343	40.29	X
Niki Sharma		Vision Vancouver	58,330	40.28	X
Melissa De Genova		Non-Partisan Association	56,501	39.01	X
John Coupar		Non-Partisan Association	50,375	34.78	X
Trevor Loke		Vision Vancouver	49,878	34.44	X
Casey Crawford		Non-Partisan Association	49,020	33.85
Gabby Kalaw		Non-Partisan Association	48,600	33.56
Jason Upton		Non-Partisan Association	46,261	31.94
Dave Pasin		Non-Partisan Association	46,005	31.77
(I) Stuart Mackinnon		Green Party of Vancouver	44,761	30.91
Brent Granby		Coalition of Progressive Electors	42,769	29.53
Donalda Greenwell-Baker		Coalition of Progressive Electors	39,033	26.95
Jamie Lee Hamilton		Independent Democratic Electoral Alliance	19,495	13.46
Juliet Victoria Andalis		Independent	12,693	8.76
Eleanor Hadley		Independent	10,754	9.37
Andrew Murray		Independent	9,819	6.78
Tammy Truong		Independent	8,917	6.16
Peter Raymond Haskell		Independent	5,540	3.83
Freyja Pri Toor		Independent	5,062	3.50

School board trustees

Nine school board trustees were elected out of 20 candidates. Of the candidates, 15 were affiliated with a political party, and five were independent. Seven incumbent trustees were seeking re-election: three from Vision Vancouver, three from COPE, and one from the NPA. Of the elected trustees, five were from Vision Vancouver, three from the NPA and one from COPE.

Candidate name		Party affiliation	Votes	% of votes	Elected
(I) Patti Bacchus		Vision Vancouver	72,025	49.73	X
(I) Mike Lombardi		Vision Vancouver	65,411	45.17	X
(I) Ken Clement		Vision Vancouver	61,994	42.81	X
Cherie Payne		Vision Vancouver	61,874	42.72	X
(I) Ken Denike		Non-Partisan Association	59,310	40.95	X
(I) Allan Wong		Coalition of Progressive Electors	57,902	39.98	X
Rob Wynen		Vision Vancouver	56,763	39.19	X
Sophia Woo		Non-Partisan Association	55,890	38.59	X
Fraser Ballantyne		Non-Partisan Association	55,713	38.47	X
Stacy Robertson		Non-Partisan Association	54,275	37.48
Gwen Giesbrecht		Coalition of Progressive Electors	52,470	36.23
(I) Jane Bouey		Coalition of Progressive Electors	52,026	35.92
(I) Al Blakey		Coalition of Progressive Electors	51,963	35.88
Sandy Sharma		Non-Partisan Association	49,843	34.42
Louise Boutin		Green Party of Vancouver	34,477	23.81
Lily Harvey		Independent	20,314	14.03
Misha Lauenstein		Independent	14,297	9.87
Robert Allan Stark		Independent	13,391	9.25
Bang Nguyen		Independent	12,903	8.91
Peter Raymond Haskell		Independent	11,915	8.23

Capital Plan questions

1. Are you in favour of council having the authority, without further assent of the electors, to pass by-laws between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2014, to borrow an aggregate $65,800,000 for the following purposes?

• Community Facilities at $58,600,000
• Parks at $7,200,000

Option	Votes	Percentage
Yes	81,605	63.39
No	47,124	36.61
Total votes	128,729	100

2. Are you in favour of council having the authority, without further assent of the electors, to pass by-laws between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2014, to borrow an aggregate $66,300,000 for the following purposes?

• Street and Bridge Infrastructure at $41,150,000
• Transit and Safety Improvements at $8,500,000
• Street Lighting, Traffic Signals and Communications Systems at $16,650,000

Option	Votes	Percentage
Yes	88,640	68.85
No	40,095	31.15
Total votes	128,735	100

3. Are you in favour of council having the authority, without further assent of the electors, to pass by-laws between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2014, to borrow an aggregate $47,700,000 for the following purposes?

• Public Safety Facilities at $13,200,000
• Civic Facilities at $34,500,000

Option	Votes	Percentage
Yes	87,515	68.23
No	40,740	31.76
Total votes	128,255	100

Voter and party statistics

Voter turnout

Of the 418,878 registered voters, there were 144,823 recorded ballots, marking the voter turnout at 34.57 percent. This is an increase from the 30.79-percent turnout during the previous municipal election in 2008.

Elected percentage by party

Of the parties represented, only Vision Vancouver had its entire slate of candidates elected in all fields.

Party		Mayor		Councillors		Park board commissioners		School board trustees		Total candidates
		# Elected	% Elected	# Elected	% Elected	# Elected	% Elected	# Elected	% Elected	# Elected	% Elected
	Vision Vancouver	1/1	100.0	7/7	100.0	5/5	100.0	5/5	100.0	18/18	100.0
	Green Party of Vancouver	NIL	N/A	1/1	100.0	0/1	0.0	0/1	0.0	1/3	33.3
	Non-Partisan Association	0/1	0.0	2/10	20.0	2/6	33.3	3/5	60.0	7/22	31.8
	Coalition of Progressive Electors	NIL	N/A	0/3	0.0	0/2	0.0	1/4	25.0	1/9	11.1
	Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver	0/1	0.0	0/4	0.0	NIL	N/A	NIL	N/A	0/5	0.0
	De-Growth Vancouver	NIL	N/A	0/3	0.0	NIL	N/A	NIL	N/A	0/3	0.0
	Vancouver Citizen's Voice	0/1	0.0	NIL	N/A	NIL	N/A	NIL	N/A	0/1	0.0
	Independent Democratic Electoral Alliance	NIL	N/A	NIL	N/A	0/1	0.0	NIL	N/A	0/1	0.0
	Independent candidates	0/8	0.0	0/13	0.0	0/6	0.0	0/5	0.0	0/32	0.0

Seat changes by party

Party		Mayor & councillors				Park board commissioners				School board trustees				Total elected
		2008	2011	% Change	% Seats	2008	2011	% Change	% Seats	2008	2011	% Change	% Seats	2008	2011	% Change	% Seats
	Vision Vancouver	8	8	0.00	72.73	4	5	+25.00	71.43	4	5	+25.00	55.56	16	18	+12.50	66.67
	Non-Partisan Association	1	2	+100.00	18.18	1	2	+100.00	28.57	2	3	+50.00	33.33	4	7	+75.00	25.93
	Green Party of Vancouver	0	1	N/A	9.09	1	0	−100.00	0.00	0	0	0.00	0.00	1	1	0.00	3.70
	Coalition of Progressive Electors	2	0	−100.00	0.00	1	0	−100.00	0.00	3	1	−66.67	11.11	6	1	−83.33	3.70

External links

• Vancouver Votes on city website