While mayor-elect Pete Fry and the Vancouver Greens ultimately swept to victory in Saturday night’s municipal election, the party faced plenty of doubt throughout its campaign about whether it could pull it off.
Khadoni Pitt Chambers, the campaign manager for the Green Party of Vancouver, said they often heard that they didn’t have the same resources as other municipal parties, like ABC Vancouver.
“There was a tonne of doubt, but honestly, we never let it get to us,” they said in an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized.
“And I always remind people that Green votes were always the best when it comes to cost per dollar. When you put $1 into the Green vote campaign, that dollar will stretch further than any other thing.”
They acknowledged that the Vancouver Greens didn’t have as much money as parties like ABC Vancouver or OneCity. But the party had a robust volunteer base, and they were certain people would show up.
“The Green Party really did have a smaller organization than ABC, but an effective organization,” said Stewart Prest, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia.
To get out the vote, the municipal party used social media, positive campaign messaging, engaged with different communities throughout the city, and worked with other progressive/left-wing municipal parties.
“They didn’t necessarily have the resources for what is sometimes called the ‘air war’ in politics — that sense of advertising budgets — but they had a very effective ground game,” Prest said.
And it worked: Fry won with nearly 100,000 votes, beating out incumbent Ken Sim, who garnered over 67,000 votes. Every single Green that ran for City Council, Park Board, and the Vancouver School Board won their seat, alongside COPE and, to a lesser extent, OneCity candidates.
Grassroots movement
Pitt Chambers said the Vancouver Greens have been building their network of volunteers and supporters over the past four years. Early in their campaign this year, they sought out these volunteers and found roles that fit them, like phone or foot canvassing.
“When it comes to community building, there’s no better organization than the Greens at building a community and building that support network, and that’s what we got to see on Saturday,” they said.
They said they focused on the Greens’ key areas where they already had a lot of support, like Mount Pleasant, East Vancouver, Kitsilano, and the West End.
“It was also a big year for us to be able to expand our base as well, getting out of some of the smaller areas or neighbourhoods that we had previously been in. It was the first time we had to run mayor, as well, as the Green Party, and so that really allowed us to have an even larger reach.”
Campaign messaging
Prest said Fry ran the “chillest campaign for mayor” that he’s ever seen.
“He really focused on politics almost being an antidote to ABC — without being negative in his attacks,” he said. “Just saying, ‘This city has a lot going for it, and I want to lead it, and I want to listen to you. And I think we can do this and have fun, while still taking care of the things that matter.'”
These messages were all part of the Vancouver Greens plan.
Pitt Chambers said their decision to campaign on the idea that Vancouver was a likable city responded to the narrative that ‘Vancouver is dying,’ which comes from a film that former journalist Aaron Gunn produced about the city’s drug crisis and released during the 2022 municipal election cycle.
“We’re like, Vancouver isn’t dying. This place is amazing. This is one of, if not the best city in North America. And we just couldn’t believe this entire narrative that was being built that the city is dead, it’s dying, and almost a hopeless narrative.”
In ABC Vancouver’s ads, Pitt Chambers said they didn’t see “the things that we love about the city and the things we cherish about the city, the arts, the nature […] the walkability and bikeability.”
Attack ads and the ‘antidote’
Khadoni Pitt Chambers, the campaign manager for the Green Party of Vancouver. (Hanna Hett/Daily Hive)
Pitt Chambers said they started discussing ABC Vancouver’s attack ads targeting Fry once they began emerging in the summer.
“Ken [Sim] was using the language of ‘poison’ for the city,” they said. “And I just sat there one day at the table […], and I said, ‘Pete, we can use that. I mean, you are actually not a poison. You are an antidote to the city.'”
He pointed out that Sim and ABC Vancouver had done things that they considered “poisons,” like cutting the City budget, freezing property taxes, and laying off staff. During Fry’s time on council, he had already tabled several items in opposition to ABC.
Pitt Chambers said: “‘Pete, you are already bringing forward the antidotes to a lot of these poison pills.'”
They decided to run with it.
“And it really picked up after the attack ads kept coming at us. We don’t have to sit here, and actually don’t need to negatively campaign back, either.”
For example, the Vancouver Greens posted a video on social media, with Fry watching an ABC attack ad and reacting to it.
The ‘little guy’
Pitt Chambers also gave props to their video editing team, which they nicknamed the “small fries.”
“[They] were instrumental in creating some of that content that I feel really pushed us over the edge in terms of our air game.”
Pitt Chambers said that they wanted to use social media and talk to the “everyday, average person.”
“We wanted to do things that were punchy, catchy, and would still convey who Pete is as a person, and really just show A: how well he knows this city, and B: that he really does want to work for the average person in the city. And I think one of the big things was the little guy video.”
The “little guy” video shows a tiny human less than a foot tall, depicting Fry listening to “little guy,” and was part of their broader messaging push of “a city that works for you.”
Unity with COPE and OneCity
The three progressive parties in Vancouver politics — the Greens, OneCity, and COPE — all decided to come together this election.
“Those discussions started very early on, to ensure that there was no vote splitting,” Pitt Chambers said. “We hear all the time, especially from left-wing parties and left-wing organizations, is: ‘We can’t split the vote. If we split the vote, then we’ll end up with conservatives in power.’ And that was a narrative we wanted to avoid for Vancouver.”
All three of the left parties had mayoral candidates: OneCity selected William Azaroff, COPE picked Stephanie Allen, and the Vancouver Greens, of course, chose Pete Fry.
But the three parties agreed to limit the number of candidates they’d run to reduce competition among left-wing/progressive-leaning candidates and improve their chances of getting elected.
Among the three mayoral candidates, they agreed to “engage in a good-faith effort” to determine which one would be the best to compete.
Each of the three parties could also nominate up to five City Council candidates, with 10 seats to fill. Meanwhile, each party could also run a limited number of candidates for the Park Board and School Board.
And Pete Fry was ultimately chosen as the progressive mayoral candidate.
Pitt Chambers said they came to this conclusion after “numerous rounds of polling and testing.”
“Pete was tracking the strongest not only out of the unity agreement candidates but everyone overall.”
Following this, COPE’s Allen stepped down as mayoral candidate, and OneCity’s Azaroff followed suit shortly after.
Pitt Chambers said that the coalition “really allowed us to merge our resources together in terms of our volunteer capacity, so we had folks that were able to be knocking on doors who just wanted to support a progressive future in Vancouver.”
This didn’t mean volunteers knocked doors for both COPE and the Greens, but that the unity agreement helped them more generally.
“[It] allowed more people to feel comfortable and confident to vote for progressive change in the city and put forward a voice [saying that] you can vote with your heart and vote for who you want.”
The platform
The Vancouver Greens released a 71-page platform at the end of September, which the candidates designed.
The Vancouver Greens staff then reviewed it, ensured it aligned with the organization’s values, and “really just got down to the editing process,” Pitt Chambers said.
Pitt Chambers said the messaging— making it understandable for someone who isn’t in the weeds of municipal policy — took a lot of work. They identified people’s biggest issues and offered a practical solution from the policy book.
They have a policy background and a knack for distilling complex topics into a clear message, which the Vancouver Greens communication staff took afterwards to “boil it down even further” for social media.
What’s next?
While the Green Party mayor-elect, councillors, school board, and park board will soon be governing the City of Vancouver, the Green Party as an entity plans to keep the “momentum going,” said Pitt Chambers.
Pitt Chambers said the 2026 municipal campaign was a “David and Goliath scenario.”
“Now, it’s going to be for the party to be able to show that not only can we do this with limited resources, but we’re going to come back in four years even stronger, and there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind in 2030, when the Green Party comes back, that we will be a force for campaigning.”
