Local decisions shape our communities, from the services we rely on to the places where we live, connect, and belong. Through our Listening Campaign and Mayoral Candidates Dialogue, we heard directly from community members about what matters most and brought those priorities to candidates. Now it’s your turn to make your voice heard. Vote in your local election on October 17.
The Listening Campaign
Ahead of Vancouver’s 2026 municipal election, neighbourhood houses across the city came together to listen to what mattered most to our communities.
From July to September, community members shared their perspectives on six key themes through surveys, and conversation boards placed in neighbourhood houses. The community’s feedback helped identify three top priorities, which we brought directly to municipal candidates at our Mayoral Candidates Dialogue on Oct 1st, 2026.
Mayoral Candidates Dialogue
On October 1, we brought community members and mayoral candidates together at John Oliver Secondary for the Your Voice, Your Vote Mayoral Dialogue, shaped by what we heard through our Listening Campaign.
Of the six themes explored with the community, three concerns emerged as top priorities:
1) Belonging & Social Connection
2) Access to Quality Living
3) Climate Action & Reconciliation
Five mayoral candidates took the stage to respond directly to questions from community members with lived experience of these issues and share how they would take action.
More about the
Listening Campaign
The City plans, regulates, and invests in the infrastructure and services that support quality of life. Neighbourhood houses help bring those investments to life by creating opportunities for participation, and helping neighbours connect to one another and their community.
As Vancouver prepared for the 2026 municipal election, neighbourhood houses across the city worked together to ensure community voices were part of the conversation.
To better understand what matters most to our neighbours, we identified six key themes that neighbourhood houses can help address through our work. From July to September, we invited community members to share their perspectives through surveys, conversation boards, and community engagement activities.
Residents, participants, volunteers, local business owners, and other community members told us what they value most, what challenges they face, and which issues they believe deserve the greatest attention.
The feedback helped us identify the three themes that matter most to our communities. We are now bringing those priorities directly to municipal candidates, along with questions sourced from community members themselves, to ensure that the concerns, ideas, and experiences of Vancouver residents are heard during the election.
More about the
Mayoral Candidates Dialogue
On October 1, community members, neighbours and mayoral candidates came together for Your Voice, Your Vote, an evening of community dialogue and civic engagement.
The event built on our Your Voice, Your Vote listening campaign, which gathered input from hundreds of community members about what matters most to them and their neighbourhoods.
The evening began with a Community Symposium, where attendees explored the themes that emerged from the campaign and learned more about voting. This was followed by a Mayoral Candidates Dialogue, where candidates responded to questions shaped directly by community priorities.
Participating mayoral candidates included:
- Colleen Hardwick, TEAM
- Kareem Allam, Vancouver Liberals
- Pete Fry, Green Party of Vancouver
- Muhhamad Ahmad, Bright Future Vancouver
- Rebecca Bligh, Vote Vancouver
Invited candidates who declined:
Ken Sim, ABC Vancouver
The dialogue was moderated by Trudi Goels, co-founder of Ablaze Services Workers Co-op and The Feminist Campaign School, and co-chair of Women Transforming Cities. The evening was hosted by Jaylene Tyme, artiste, performer and advocate Indigenous Two-Spirit Trans human, Treaty 4 Plains Cree, Saulteaux, Métis.
Click on each poster board below to learn what each theme means, what matters to communities, what neighbourhood houses do, and what we are asking the city of Vancouver to do to help.
Be part of the change you want to see in your neighbourhood and your city.
Change begins close to home—in our neighbourhoods. It happens when we come together, share ideas, volunteer, and help shape the future of the communities they call home. Every act of participation builds stronger, connected and resilient neighbourhoods. Change also starts in local elections on October 17, 2026 across BC!
