A veteran Green city councillor has a chance to unseat the right-wing mayor of Vancouver, who used his power to prolong the grip of the gas industry on B.C.’s biggest city.

This became possible after the two other progressive parties, COPE and OneCity, withdrew their mayoral candidates. That leaves the Green, Pete Fry, to challenge Ken Sim for the mayor’s seat.

Like a primary election, this clears the field on the progressive side. Meanwhile Sim is caught in a nasty vote split on the centre-right, as three of his former ABC allies run against him.

Elsewhere in the province, it’s conservatives who are far better organized.

Before now, political parties were a rarity in B.C.’s local elections. This time the Conservative Electors Association is registered to run in 40 municipalities across the province.

Their candidates share messaging, policies and tactics, stoking fears about drug use and Indigenous land claims – the same issues hammered by provincial and federal conservatives.

These local election campaigns build off earlier petition drives and protests, which featured speakers like BC Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay. 

The word “Conservative” is printed next to candidates’ names on the ballot, offering instant brand recognition. Independents and local slates are left to compete over all the other voters.

In the short term, the only way to counter this ideological takeover of municipal politics is to increase voter turnout. That’s the goal of Dogwood’s Triple the Vote campaign this fall.

Then, as we saw in Vancouver this week, voters will need to unite behind a few candidates who can win seats on local councils, in order to counter the right-wing culture war.