A mayoral candidate has withdrawn her candidacy in Vancouver’s upcoming election, citing her party’s commitment to getting a progressive elected to the city’s top job. COPE’s Stephanie Allen announced she was stepping down on Wednesday. “By stepping aside, we are showing to the people of Vancouver that we have heard you, that we will put you first, and that our commitment is to the long haul,” she said. Allen’s decision was part of a commitment made earlier this year between COPE, OneCityand the Green Party as part of a “Progressive Primary.” The plan was for the parties to come together and throw their support behind a single mayoral candidate, in an effort to prevent splitting the left vote. Asked what led her to making this decision, Allen said she realized it was the right time, and urged her fellow progressive parties to co-operate. “I’m strongly encouraging the other mayoral candidates in this race to also do the right thing to show integrity and narrow the mayoral field to the person best equipped and positioned to evict Ken Sim,” Allen said. Allen would not say who COPE would throw its support behind, adding the party was following Elections B.C. laws. “If there’s any endorsements by any individuals like me, that’s going to be something to discuss later,” she said. And then there were two With Allen out of the race, that leaves the Greens’ Pete Fry and OneCity’s William Azaroff left to negotiate who will be the next person to step down. On Wednesday, both candidates stated they had further plans to meet, but were clear they felt their respective parties were well positioned. Fry said he was “100 per cent in it to win it,” and believed he was the front runner, citing a July poll by Pallas Data that found 18 per cent of respondents said they would cast their mayoral ballots for Fry, compared to 14 per cent for Sim. “I think that I’m clearly in the front-running of the three progressives,” he said. “And I think that’s momentum I will continue to build on. And there’s no logic to me pulling out at this point.” When asked to comment on Fry’s response, Azaroff said he was disappointed, stating an upcoming discussion planned for Thursday. “There are conversations still to take place, and for Pete to circumvent all that and make that statement, I find that disappointing,” he said. “Real leadership means there’s a process in front of us.” Azaroff said he was proud of what the OneCity team had accomplished, citing two-record breaking fundraising years in a row, and more than $300,000 raised in 2025. Stewart Prest, a UBC political scientist, said narrowing the field was a good move, but the fact that a leader hadn’t yet been decided upon spoke to friction between the parties. “If voters are really serious about finding an alternative that they can count on and they see this tug-of-war happening between two ideologically, in some ways, quite similar candidates, they may simply throw up their hands and turn to a simpler-to-identify option,” he said. “And we do have the Liberal Party under Kareem Allam waiting there in the wings polling quite well.” Municipal candidate nominations close Sept.11
