'Practical middle': Rebecca Bligh launches mayoral campaign with Vote Vancouver

Vote Vancouver has officially launched its campaign, vowing to represent the "practical middle" at City Hall.

City Councillor Rebecca Bligh created the party in 2025 after parting ways with Mayor Ken Sim's ABC over what she described as a misalignment in priorities.

"Ken Sim has had four years, a council majority, and every opportunity to prepare our city," Bligh said during a press conference on Wednesday outside City Hall. "Instead, we've lost time on housing, we've lost ground on public services, and we've watched City Hall become consumed by political games and the wrong priorities."

She argued that a Vote Vancouver government with her in her former boss' chair would do things differently.

"We are proudly in the 'practical middle,'" Bligh said of Vote Vancouver. "We'll take good ideas seriously wherever they come from, and judge them by the difference they make in people's lives."

The party's platform consists of four main pillars: "stay in the city you call home, make a good living in Vancouver, get where you need to go faster and cheaper, and love your community."

Bligh made it clear that affordability and transparent, public-oriented governance was at the centre of her plan.

One of Bligh's campaign promises is to work with TransLink to expand the taxpayer-funded public transportation program to include youth aged 13-18, a move she said would give that demographic more independence and set them up to be transit users for life.

"There are cities across our country that are already doing this," she explained. "Vancouver is behind."

Bligh also vowed to work with the private sector to bring more passenger ferries to the area's under-utilized waterways.

Vote Vancouver is not alone in the centrist space. Among Bligh's competitors is the Vancouver Liberals, led by Kareem Allam. When asked by Sitka Media whether she'd consider forming a coalition with the mayor's former chief of staff, Bligh said she was "in it to win it."

Allam offered a similar response when asked the same question.

"There’s some fairly significant differences on policy between where we stand as Vancouver Liberals and where Rebecca stands with her party," he said, citing a number of policies Bligh voted for or against while on council.

The election will take place on October 17.