1996 Vancouver municipal election

1996 Vancouver municipal election

November 16, 1996 (1996-11-16)
11 seats in Vancouver City Council
First party Second party Third party   COPE VOICE Leader Philip Owen Carmela Allevato Jonathan Baker Party NPA COPE VOICE Seats won 11 0 0 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 50,969 26,143 10,703 Percentage 53.15% 27.26% 11.16%
Mayor before election Philip Owen NPA Elected mayor Philip Owen NPA

The city of Vancouver, Canada, held municipal elections on November 16, 1996. Canadian citizens who were over 18 years of age at the time of the vote, and had been a resident of Vancouver for the previous 30 days and a resident of British Columbia for the previous six months, were able to vote for candidates in four races that were presented on one ballot. In addition, Canadian citizen non-resident property owners were eligible to vote.

The ballot elected one mayor, ten councillors, nine School Board trustees and seven Park Board commissioners. Each elector could vote for as many candidates as there were open seats (e.g., an elector could vote for ten or fewer councillors).

There was no fee associated with registering as a candidate at this time. Brian "Godzilla" Salmi, a freelance journalist for publications such as Terminal City, The Stranger, The National Post and The Georgia Straight, publicly offered to buy a pitcher of beer for anyone who ran for office, resulting in numerous joke-candidates appearing on the ballots that year.

As well, Vancouver voters voted on several referendum questions. A majority of voters voted against electoral system reform and in favor of retaining the at-large districting.

Elections to Vancouver City Council

Main article: Vancouver City Council

Overall council results

All figures include votes cast for both mayor and councillors

Party		Party leader or mayoral candidate	# of candidates	Council seats				Total popular vote
				1993	Before election	Elected	Change	#	%	Change
	NPA	Philip Owen	10			10
	COPE	Carmela Allevato	10			0
	Green	Paul Watson	2	-	-
	VOICE	Jonathan Baker	8	-	-	-
	Independent			-	-	-
Total						10	-		100.0	-

Mayoralty election

One to be elected.

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Philip Owen	NPA	50969
	Carmela Allevato	COPE	26143
	Jonathan Baker	VOICE	10703
	Paul Watson	Green	3117
	Marc Emery	Independent	1125
	Sage Advice	Independent	340
	Dhavide Arjunan Aruliah	Independent	311
	Gilbert Bailey	Independent	287
	Zippy the Circus Chimp	Independent	264
	Jay Mang	Independent	168
	Ronald F. McDonald	Independent	145
	Jennifer E. Dunnaway	Independent	136
	Yummy Girl	Independent	130
	Greg Westerlund	Independent	127
	A. Red Hot Pepper	Independent	106
	Randy Oliver O'Grady	Independent	103
	Barb E. Doll	Independent	101
	Sarah Whittam	Independent	99
	Kellee Lynn Cole	Independent	94
	Jason Benj	Independent	90
	Tony Montana	Independent	78
	Michael J. Foster	Independent	71
	Lupo The Butcher	Independent	69
	Mr. X	Independent	68
	Allison Jane Mclennan	Independent	59
	Samantha Foxx	Independent	57
	Lorna Marie Potter	Independent	57
	Eddie Fernandes	Independent	55
	Frank The Moose	Independent	50
	John M. Mcgoldrick	Independent	49
	Gölök Zlf Buday	Independent	42
	Buzz	Independent	42
	Michel Leblond	Independent	42
	Bugger	Independent	39
	Roger Stewart Reimer	Independent	38
	Ryan S. Bigge	Independent	38
	Christina Louise Sharlow	Independent	36
	Zaius	Independent	36
	Gaston Gingras	Independent	32
	Jurgen T. Schaub	Independent	28
	Pete Fishburger	Independent	28
	Kenneth P. Thomas	Independent	27
	Stuart Maxwell	Independent	26
	L. Ron Moonbeam	Independent	25
	Tho Buskerville	Independent	24
	Pete Chezankreme	Independent	24
	Nicholas Podbrey	Independent	24
	The Trash Terminator	Independent	24
	John A. Tweed	Independent	22
	Tamas R. Revoczi	Independent	19
	Dylan Rymer	Independent	18
	James Octeau	Independent	15
	Ingrid	Independent	15
	Steve Wansleeben	Independent	14
	Sebastian Templer	Independent	12
	Figgg Freud	Independent	11
	Jeff D. Nix	Independent	10
	The Stainer	Independent	10

Councillors election

Ten to be elected.

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Jennifer Clarke	NPA	46700
	Gordon Price	NPA	45118
	Don Bellamy	NPA	44051
	George Puil	NPA	43541
	Lynne Kennedy	NPA	43284
	Nancy Chiavario	NPA	42680
	Sam Sullivan	NPA	40846
	Daniel Lee	NPA	40405
	Don Lee	NPA	39319
	Alan Herbert	NPA	36174
	Tim Louis	COPE	28483
	Mel Lehan	COPE	26593
	Michael Walker	COPE	23666
	Jamie Lee Hamilton	COPE	23510
	Sean R. McEwen	COPE	23329
	Merrilee Robson	COPE	22833
	Shane Simpson	COPE	22761
	Frances Wasserlein	COPE	22202
	Blair Petrie	COPE	21961
	Nina Khajuria	COPE	21402
	Frederic Bass	Green	14476
	Connie Fogal	VOICE	14434
	Raymond Leung	VOICE	14370
	Valerie Jerome	Green	13863
	Stephen F.Y. Chong	Independent	9531
	Bev Ballantyne	VOICE	8887
	Brian Lee Buchanan	VOICE	7996
	Wendy M. Turner	Independent	7895
	Sarah J. Farris	VOICE	7794
	Harkirpal S. Sara	VOICE	6843
	Manuel A. Azevedo	VOICE	6308
	Jenny Shaw	Independent	5706
	Arno D. Neumann	VOICE	5033
	Gordon T. Kennedy	Independent	4071
	Mike Bell	Independent	3434
	Ann Livingston	LWF	3159
	Lorelei Hawkins	Independent	2924
	Maureen G. Dawson	Independent	2560
	Heather Inglis Baron	Independent	2547
	Julia Ann Marks	Independent	2425
	William W. Kay	LWF	2414
	Martha Roberts	LWF	2383
	Shane Delarue	LWF	2192
	Mike Lawrence	Independent	2192
	Iqbal Sara	Independent	2031
	Jeffery D. Berwick	Independent	2004
	Matt McGrath	LWF	1961
	Cowboy Ellis	Independent	1927
	Joan L. Rowntree	Independent	1900
	Howard Dahl	Independent	1881
	Mike Mclean	Independent	1684
	Sharai Mustatia	LWF	1681
	Guy Wera	Independent	1476
	Robert Martin McCallum	Independent	1465
	Anthony J. Ryder	LWF	1383
	Joseph X	LWF	1334
	Lani Russwurm	LWF	1292
	Gator McCluskie	Independent	827
Total				100.0

Elections to the Vancouver Park Board

Seven to be elected.

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
		Independent
		Independent
		Independent
Total				100.0

Referendum results

Vancouver voters voted on question of electoral system reform.

A majority of voters voted against electoral system reform and in favour of retaining the at-large districting. A little more than 59 per cent voted in favour of "keeping the existing system of electing councillors 'at large', whereby all voters can vote for all councillors."

If reform had received more than 60 per cent, then the results of the supplementary question "which method of electing councillors would you prefer?" would have been considered: -the option "Ward system, whereby only the electors of the ward vote for only one member of Council" received approval from 56 per cent of voters; -The option "Mixed system, which combines some councillors elected 'at large' and some ward councillors" received approval from 48 per cent; -the option "Proportional System, whereby the make-up of Council is determined in part by the per cent of the popular vote obtained by each political group during the election" received approval from 37 per cent; -the option "Other system of electing councillors" received approval from 25 per cent of valid votes cast.

External links

• City of Vancouver election results 1996 Archived 2006-09-08 at the Wayback Machine
• Vancouver charter Archived 2008-10-29 at the Wayback Machine
• Vancouver School Board (School District #39) Archived 2007-03-23 at the Wayback Machine
• Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation