Seeking Nomination for COPE, 2026
COPE Members will vote on the COPE slate for the 2026 election on May 11th.
Tanya Webking (T’locho Nation) is a frontline worker in the Downtown Eastside and a 60’s scoop survivor who is fighting to shift from responding to harm to changing the systems that create it.
As the co-chair of COPE from 2022-2026, she oversaw the transformation of the party into a fighting force for the working class. Donate to Tanya’s nomination campaign.
Chloe Leslie is a renter, proud CUPE member, and nonprofit professional who has spent the past seven years working alongside communities across Vancouver to strengthen food access and public services.
From coordinating citywide food redistribution partnerships to supporting initiatives in the Downtown Eastside, her work has focused on practical, community-driven solutions to everyday challenges. Donate to Chloe’s nomination campaign.
Solomon Yi-Kieran 易行天 is an on-campus organizer and student organizer, and the VP External at AMS, the UBC student union. They worked with other student unions and activists to lobby MPs to create a Youth Climate Corps, and won a $40m investment for youth climate jobs, even amidst cuts in the federal budget.
They also led a student team to campaign for the UBC SkyTrain, collecting over 15,000 signatures, and contributed a motion to city council on the matter moved by Sean Orr and Lucy Maloney which passed unanimously. Donate to Solomon’s nomination campaign.
Devyani Singh is a climate scientist and a financial analyst who recognizes that that the roots of the affordability crisis and the climate crisis are the same thing: the political power of the super-rich.
Devyani has been supporting work on building climate policy by writing multiple motions on climate justice and holding Big Oil accountable that have been brought forward and passed in City Hall since 2018. Donate to Devyani’s nomination campaign.
David Wray is an educator and activist who lives in East Vancouver.
He’s running with COPE to fight for the right to the city. The idea that the people who live, work, and create here should be able to stay, participate, and shape Vancouver’s future.
Angela is a political organizer and activist who helped win free birth control in BC, and most recently managed Tanille Johnston’s NDP leadership campaign, making history with the first-ever Indigenous candidate on a federal leadership ballot.
She’s worked at every level of government, but got her start as a doorknocker for COPE with Ellen Woodsworth. If elected, she’ll bring a decade of experience working behind the scenes to fight for the working class of Vancouver. Donate to Angela’s nomination campaign.
Tara Hayes is a harm reduction worker and union activist who was elected as President of CUPE 5536 in 2024. She’s dedicated to fighting for affordability, especially affordable housing, and to fight for people’s lives against the toxic drug crisis and never back down.
She will stand up for her values, and COPE’s values, every single day on City Council
Donate to Tara’s nomination campaign.
City Council Nominees
Sean
Orr
Chloe Leslie
Food security & affordability activist
Climate Scientist & Senior Researcher at Stand.Earth
Tanya Webking
David Wray
Vancouver City Councillor since 2025
Harm Reduction Worker & Union Activist
Sean Orr is a housing activist and journalist who has a record of exposing the powerful. He was elected with COPE in the 2025 by-election.
On City Council, he’s moved motions to bring in a right of first refusal to have the city buy old rental buildings, close loopholes in the city’s tenant protection policy, and to fund our libraries to be open 7 days a week.
Donate to Sean’s nomination campaign.
Devyani Singh
Solomon Yi-Kieran 易行天
Angela Liu
Campaign Manager for Tanille Johnston NDP Leadership Campaign
Tara
Hayes
Public Transit Activist
Anti-poverty and housing activist, COPE organizer
Arts & Culture Activist, Right to the City
Maria is an artist, educator, and ally, who is a born-and-bred East Van Gen X theatre and film professional and has had careers as a Culture and Heritage Planner and a Museum Collections Manager. She is currently an Outreach Educator with the Vancouver School Board’s Adult Education program and a member of two unions in BC, the BCTF and UBCP/ACTRA.
She’s fighting for the soul of Vancouver: heritage buildings, landscapes, and communities, Arts & Culture funding, and affordability for all.Donate to Maria’s nomination campaign.
Maria J. Cruz
Artist, Educator, and Activist
School Board Nominees
Derrick O’Keefe
Gwen Giesbrecht
COPE Park Board Commissioner, 2018-2022
Journalist and Writer, COPE 2018 Candidate for City Council
Suzie Mah
Vancouver School Board Trustee since 2022
Melanie Cheng
DPAC Chair, Organizer against school land sell-offs
AJ Batalden
Educator
As COPE's VSB Trustee since 2022, Suzie has held the line and fought back against ABC's callous agenda- and won for students.
She helped win life-saving defibrillators in schools, save school meal programs threatened by cuts, led the fight for free transit for teens, and she's opposed ABC's war on democracy and handouts of city land to the rich every step of the way.
Donate to Suzie’s nomination campaign.
As the former Chair of the Vancouver Parent Advisory Committee, the former President of the Britannia Community Centre board and as a former Park Board Commissioner with COPE, Gwen Giesbrecht has the experience and integrity to fight for families, students, and teachers on the Vancouver School Board.
She'll fight to stop public funds going into private education, use public land to benefit communities instead of backfilling budget cuts through sell-offs, and expand school meal programs for all students. Donate to Gwen’s nomination campaign.
Derrick O'Keefe (Métis) is a proud democratic socialist and a long-time member of COPE, first volunteering in the early 2000s. As the parent of two school-aged kids, a renter, a union member, a writer and researcher, he'll always fight for the needs of the many ahead of the wealthy few.
Derrick will fight for fully funded and high quality public education, support for students with diverse learning needs, and to empower the next generation to fight for their communities. Donate to Derrick’s nomination campaign.
Melanie is a mom of three teenagers and a senior paralegal. For the past 10 years, she’s used her background in law and governance to advocate for students and families in education.
As Chair of the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council, she’s worked hard to protect public school land, strengthen parent voice, and push for transparent, accountable decision-making grounded in the needs of students and school communities. Donate to Melanie’s nomination campaign.
AJ Batalden is a Grad student and education assistant who has seen first hand how teachers and students had to leave the community due to rising housing costs and a lack of support structures.
With the rising challenges to democratic thought, threats on economic and environmental stability, and backsliding away from an equitable and inclusive society, it’s a critical time to strengthen our public school system. Donate to AJ’s nomination campaign.
Park Board Nominees
Sacia
Burton
Jamie Han
Youth Organizer, Avi Lewis for Leader Campaign
Cease Wyss
Ethnobotanist, Park Board Candidate for COPE 2014
Sacia Burton is running for Park Board to fight to make our parks, community centres, and public spaces to be affordable, enjoyable, and sustainable for generations to come.
As a renter, aunt, dog owner, and bird watcher, Sacia has fought for over 15 years as an organizer to strengthen housing rights, bolster public transit, and stabilize food security for people across BC.
Donate to Sacia’s nomination campaign.
Jamie Han is not the type of person who can sit on the sidelines when things are going off course. Why do so many of our neighbouring cities invest in parks and recreation while Vancouver stagnates and falls behind? She’ll dig through documents, records, and by-laws to pick apart systems that are failing people, and build something better.
Jamie is fighting for safer parks, more cycling infrastructure, real investment in public parks and recreation, and better parks, pools, and playgrounds for all. Donate to Jamie’s nomination campaign.
T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss is an indigenous matriarch of the Skwxwu7mesh, Sto:lo and Hawaiian people. Through her 30 year career as an ethnobotanist, artist, activist, and educator, she strives to share indigenous customs, teachings, and futures for cultural and environmental preservation.
Cease will be a strong voice on park board for everyone and fight for sustainable and vibrant parks, affordable and enjoyable recreation, and to always support vulnerable people, families, and children. Donate to Cease’s nomination campaign.
Mayoral Nominees
Coming
Soon
COPE will be announcing our mayoral candidate in advance of the May 11th Nomination meeting.
They’re someone who will fight to make Vancouver affordable for everyone and evict Ken Sim.
The COPE Election Planning Committee (EPC) is recommending the following sized COPE slate for 2026, in accordance with the tri-party limiting agreement negotiated by the COPE Executive between 2025 and 2026 with progressive opposition parties:
1 Mayor
5 City Council
4 School Board
4 Park Board