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COPE council candidate Sean Orr opens up about advocacy, pragmatism, and the intimidation of city hall
As part of our interview series covering by-election candidates, we talk to council candidate Sean Orr
Nate Lewis
February 12, 2025
What happened: The Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) announced Sean Orr as their candidate for the upcoming city council by-election.
The candidate: Orr, whose parents immigrated from Northern Ireland, comes from what he describes as a very political family. As a kid, Orr was brought along to peace marches in the mid 1980s and demonstrations against the evictions in the Downtown Eastside ahead of Expo 86.
“For a kid to be seeing that, it's like, wow, fighting for community is important,” Orr recalled.
As an adult, Orr, 46, has been writing about Vancouver arts, culture, and politics for the past 20 years and moonlights as the frontman and singer for the punk band Needs.
Party switch: Orr made his first foray into electoral politics in 2022 as a city council candidate for VOTE Socialist, a nascent party with aspirational policies. In January 2025, they officially deregistered as an electoral party, and have now thrown their support behind Orr’s candidacy with COPE.
“I think people were pretty unsure. We were a brand new party, and didn't know a lot about us, and didn't know a lot about me,” in 2022, Orr said, but feels he’s now got a lot of momentum going into the by-election campaign.
Orr feels like COPE definitely has the volunteer and organizational resources that are necessary to run a campaign. “I didn't quite do enough [meeting people in 2022], because we were so limited… we’re gonna have to get out to knock on a lot more doors,” Orr said.
Orr said he’s excited to get out to neighbourhoods like Marpole, South Van, Kerrisdale, and Point Grey, where, as a Gastown resident, he doesn’t usually visit.
Established in 1968, COPE “unites individuals and groups seeking a progressive orientation in Vancouver’s civic life,” including a focus on “working class politics,” and advancing economic justice through the funding of social and civic services, regulated affordable housing, and an end to homelessness.
After electing five city councillors in 1990, COPE was able to form a majority government at city hall in 2002. However, they’ve been on the outside looking in at the city council level since the early 2000s, with Jean Swanson being their only candidate elected since 2008.
“I'm honored to be a part of such a party with a long and storied history fighting for people,” Orr said, adding that Swanson has been a helpful and supportive mentor so far in the campaign.
Dive deeper: Christopher Cheung with the Tyee has more details on the “imperfect” three party deal to avoid progressive vote splitting in the upcoming by-election.
Council dynamics: Given Orr would, if elected, be in a minority position on city council, he stressed he wants to be a voice for marginalized people and social movements. That includes championing renters, disabled, Indigenous, and trans people, drug users, artists, and seniors, and fighting for neighbourhoods, climate, and housing.
“If you have a councillor that comes out and supports and amplifies [those groups and issues], that's huge. That's not going to be the only role, but that's certainly going to be part of it,” Orr told Vancity Lookout.
In terms of specific actions, Orr said he’d like to renew the leases on temporary modular housing facilities that have closed or are scheduled to close in the next few years (at least one of those sites, Naomi Place near Nanaimo Station, has remained open past its expected 2024 closure), and continue to build supportive housing if council decides to pause that later this month.
Orr said he’d also like to institute a pre-emptive right or right of first refusal bylaw where the city would have first dibs to buy real estate or property that’s put up for sale. The idea of a pre-emptive right bylaw was looked into by city staff over the past few years, but they found it “is not likely to increase the equitable distribution or quantity of non-market housing,” due to funding constraints, but could be reconsidered if there’s a change in the city’s economic conditions, according to a March 2024 memo.
According to staff, similar bylaws in Montréal and San Francisco have been effective in preserving existing affordable housing.
Orr added he’d love to establish a mansion tax (new taxes are generally under the purview of the province) but said he’d have to be realistic about what he would be able to do on council.
“I've got a lot to learn, and I'm not naive to expect that I can go in and make revolutionary, radical kinds of changes. But like I said, it's more about amplifying social movements and bringing people's concerns to the table, especially in that first little while,” Orr said.
“I'm not ruling out working with [the ABC] party. I think there's some very sensible people on that council. And I'm not naive enough to think that I'm gonna go in there and just make their life a living hell,” Orr said.
“I think their policies are a little out of whack with everyday people, but I think there's definitely room to work there,” Orr added.
An intimidating institution: Orr pointed to the typically low voter turnout in civic elections (approximate voter turnout in Vancouver has been between 30% and 42% over the past five general elections) as an indication that many people don’t feel a connection to their government or are intimidated by it.
“I think it's intimidating for a lot of folks, people that don't go out to council meetings. It's a deeply colonial institution as well,” Orr said.
That feeling of intimidation – by the institution itself and by the act of running government – is something Orr said he feels personally, even as he’s seeking to join those very ranks at city hall.
“It’s certainly a bit of a paradox,” Orr admitted, adding that his desire to try and join civic government is to be a voice of the people.
Continuing coverage: This profile is part of Vancity Lookout’s continuing coverage of the 2025 city council by-election on April 5th.
We’re endeavouring to profile all of the nominated candidates, and, in future coverage, plan to highlight their positions on the biggest issues facing Vancouverites, to help voters make informed decisions at the polls.