Sean Orr will be running for the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) party in the Vancouver City Council by-election in April 2025.
COPE announced that its members unanimously confirmed Orr as their sole candidate during a nomination meeting on Sunday afternoon.
“We’re taking democracy back from the billionaires!” reads a post by COPE on X.
COPE describes itself as a “coalition of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, housing activists, and environmental groups. COPE believes that residents and social movements can advocate for policies that address the needs of people, not the profits of real estate developers and speculators.”
Over the past two years, COPE has been highly critical of Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver party’s policies regarding housing, homelessness, the mental health and opioids crisis, expanded policing resources, climate action and environmentalism, and the proposed dissolution of the Vancouver Park Board’s elected commissioners. As well, this municipal party has also been very vocal in its support for Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas War.
Orr is a Downtown Eastside activist, and a longtime contributor of Scout Magazine. In late 2024, he completed his studies at Simon Fraser University, earning a Bachelor of Arts with focuses in political science and geography.
This is not Orr’s first attempt to secure a Vancouver city councillor seat.
In the October 2022 general civic election, Orr was a candidate for the VOTE Socialist Vancouver party. Among all city councillor candidates, he earned the 36th most votes, securing 13,744 ballots.
COPE’s Jean Swanson, who was first elected in 2018, lost her seat in City Council in the 2022 election, when she secured 32,833 votes or 14th place.
By comparison, Green city councillor Pete Fry secured 37,270 votes in 2022, which was the fewest number of votes among the 10 elected councillors.
Well, cats out of the bag. I’m seeking the @COPEVancouver nomination for the byelection! Let’s take back City Hall for the people! pic.twitter.com/zUsRAfdMo1
— SEAN ORR (@seanorr) January 23, 2025
During the by-election on Saturday, April 5, 2025, Vancouver voters will select two new Vancouver city councillors. Advance voting and mail-in-ballot opportunities will also be provided.
So far, two other parties have also announced their candidates.
On January 28, the OneCity Vancouver party confirmed bike lane activist Lucy Maloney will be their sole candidate.
Then, on February 1, TEAM For A Livable Vancouver announced that former Vancouver city councillor and mayoral candidate Colleen Hardwick, along with recent Capilano University graduate Theodore Abbott, would be the party’s two candidates.
The ABC Vancouver and Green parties are also expected to make their candidate nominations in the coming days and weeks.
This mid-term vote is being held due to the resignation of OneCity councillor Christine Boyle on December 12, 2024, after she was elected as the MLA for Vancouver-Little Mountain under the BC NDP last fall. On January 15, 2025, Green councillor Adriane Carr also announced her resignation, citing frustrations with working alongside Sim and the ABC-led majority in City Council and a desire to spend more time with her family.
After the April 2025 by-election, the next scheduled general civic election will be held in October 2026.