BC Election Results: Fry’s Historic Win in Vancouver

British Columbia voters delivered a blunt verdict this month, and the BC election results are still drawing more than 50,000 searches a day. In the municipal elections of 17 October 2026, voters turfed 43 incumbent mayors, handed Vancouver its first Green Party mayor, and pushed turnout higher for the first time in years. And the province is not done voting: a snap provincial general election was held on Saturday 24 October, with the count beginning as polls closed at 8pm Pacific time.

Here is what the BC election results show so far, who won, who lost, and what to watch as the provincial count unfolds.

BC election results in Vancouver: Fry makes history

The headline result came in British Columbia’s largest city. Green Party councillor Pete Fry won the Vancouver mayoralty with 47.8 percent of the vote, 98,748 votes, defeating one-term incumbent Ken Sim of ABC Vancouver, who took 32.7 percent and 67,598 votes. The margin was 31,150 votes, with all 149 voting places counted.

Fry becomes the first Green Party mayor in Vancouver’s history, and the first Green mayor of any major Canadian city. He takes office on 2 November 2026, alongside four Green councillors. Sim conceded on election night, telling supporters: “Pete has my unwavering support.”

The result was no accident. In April 2026, the Green Party, the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) and OneCity Vancouver agreed to limit how many candidates each party would run, to avoid splitting the progressive vote. COPE and OneCity then withdrew their mayoral candidates and backed Fry as the single progressive contender. Fry campaigned on housing, affordability, mental health and public safety, with a focus on streamlining permits for low-rise apartments and infill housing. “We love this city a lot, and we’re here to work for the city, to fight for the city,” he told supporters after his win.

The sweep went beyond the mayor’s office. The Greens and COPE won eight of the ten council seats, and ABC Vancouver was shut out of both the park board and the school board, reversing the outright majorities Sim’s party won on all three bodies in 2022. Turnout in Vancouver rose to 43.29 percent, up from 36.3 percent in 2022, with 209,214 ballots cast.

BC election results across the province: 43 mayors ousted

Vancouver was the biggest upset, but far from the only one. Across British Columbia’s 161 mayoral races, 159 were decided by 24 October, with two still counting. Forty incumbents were re-elected, 43 were defeated, 38 open seats were filled and 38 races were acclaimed.

Surrey, the province’s second-largest city, also changed hands. Former mayor Doug McCallum of the Safe Surrey Coalition won 31.9 percent of the vote, beating incumbent Brenda Locke, who took 23.1 percent, reversing his narrow loss to her in 2022. In Delta, Melissa Granum won 48.4 percent, defeating both former ally Dylan Kruger on 28.3 percent and two-term incumbent George Harvie on 23.3 percent.

The list of defeated incumbents runs the length of the province: Mark Sager in West Vancouver, Patrick Johnstone in New Westminster, Eric Woodward in the Township of Langley, Nathan Pachal in the City of Langley, Dan Ruimy in Maple Ridge, Meghan Lahti in Port Moody, and Simon Yu in Prince George, who finished fourth. In Kamloops, controversial incumbent Reid Hamer-Jackson also finished fourth. Even tiny Lytton produced a dead heat, with the mayoral race tied at 45 votes each.

Not every incumbent fell. Port Coquitlam’s Brad West was re-elected with 90.6 percent of the vote, the strongest result in Metro Vancouver. Burnaby’s Mike Hurley won a second term with 58.4 percent, Abbotsford’s Ross Siemens took 62.1 percent, and Victoria’s Marianne Alto was returned with 44.2 percent.

Turnout rebounds after years of decline

The Union of BC Municipalities, using figures from CivicInfo, reports that province-wide turnout reached 32.8 percent of eligible voters in 2026, up from 29.2 percent in 2022. It is still below one voter in three, but it reverses a steady decline that ran from 33.3 percent in 2014 through 35.7 percent in 2018 to the 2022 low.

The same figures show that incumbents still won well over 70 percent of local races overall, a reminder that the mayoral upsets were the exception rather than the rule. Roughly half of all elected positions changed hands once retirements are counted alongside defeats, an attrition rate that has held near 50 percent in each of the past three elections.

The higher turnout and the mayoral turnover point in the same direction: voters who did show up were in a mood to change things. Housing costs, public safety and the cost of living dominated the campaigns, the same issues that have driven the provincial race.

Provincial vote: the count begins tonight

British Columbians went back to the polls just a week after the municipal vote. Premier David Eby called a snap provincial general election on 22 September, two years early, for 24 October 2026, a decision criticised for overlapping with the municipal elections. All 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly are at stake, with 47 needed for a majority.

At dissolution, the New Democrats held 47 seats, the Conservatives 36 under interim leader Lorne Doerkson, the Greens two, OneBC two, CentreBC one and independents three, with two vacancies. The Conservative Party entered the campaign in disarray, having gone through three leaders in a year, while the NDP campaigned on the cost of living, housing, infrastructure, US tariffs and public safety.

Polls closed at 8pm Pacific time on Saturday 24 October, and Elections BC began publishing the initial count immediately. Live results trackers such as Poliwave and Vote-Scope are following the count as it unfolds. A final count follows a week later, covering late mail-in and absentee ballots, which in 2024 moved some margins by more than two points and reversed the result in Surrey-Guildford. The final pre-election poll, from Mainstreet Research, put the Conservatives on 44.7 percent and the NDP on 37.2 percent, with the Greens on 11.2 percent.

What happens next

New mayors and councils take office at inaugural meetings in early November, with Vancouver’s new council sworn in on 2 November. Each municipality’s chief election officer formally declares the official results, and close races can still trigger judicial recounts.

For the provincial race, the first results will show whether the Conservatives’ polling lead holds or whether the NDP’s ground game delivers another narrow majority. Either way, the province has now voted twice in eight days, and the BC election results from both will shape how British Columbia is governed for the next four years.

Investors watching the province can follow the fallout on the Canadian stock screener, track the top gainers on the Canadian market, check the Canadian earnings calendar and keep an eye on unusual volume in Canadian stocks as the new councils and the next provincial government settle in.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.