The Vancouver Police Union says it won’t be endorsing a mayoral candidate in this year’s municipal election. Jason Chan, president of the VPU, said the union will instead be sending out a questionnaire to mayoral and council candidates to gauge where they stand on public safety. “We want to ensure that we’re working with whoever is elected in council to prioritize that, obviously,” he said. “To demonstrate, this is the position that you took before you came in—and hopefully it’s the same position you take while you’re in the seat.” Chan said the survey will ask parties about their positions on police funding, member well-being, street disorder and school liaison officers. In 2022, the VPU initiated a similar questionnaire—before going on to endorse Mayor Ken Sim, in an unprecedented move for the city. In a statement explaining the decision at the time, then-president Ralph Kaisers said: “Vancouverites don’t feel safe in their city. The VPU board and its members are committed to taking action to change that—and if it means getting political, so be it.” “This municipal election, we need to demand accountability out of city hall because safety is a right and everybody deserves to feel safe,” Kaisers added. Kaisers went on to run as an unsuccessful council candidate for Sim’s ABC party in the April 2025 byelection. Chan took on the leadership role about 16 months ago. Asked why he believes the union weighed in four years ago, Chan pointed to some members not feeling supported. “While it’s normal for us to be vigilant, and that’s a part of the job, people shouldn’t have to work in a fearful working environment,” he said. When asked if there would be any deal breakers in the survey—such as if a potential candidate answered they would support decreasing the Vancouver Police Department’s budget—Chan said, “No.” “What I want to do is work with whoever comes and gets into the party,” he said. “I obviously have to prioritize what it’s going to look like for public safety, our organization, the VPD as a whole, that’s a part of their mandate. Mine is to ensure that there’s good working conditions.” The union will be posting the survey results publicly. Unlike during the 2022 election, it will not be holding a candidates’ debate this year. Stewart Prest, a political scientist with the University of British Columbia, argued it’s inappropriate for a policing organization to survey political candidates in this way. “When the police start holding candidates to account for their positions, we have essentially reversed the line of accountability and the line of obligation,” he said. “And it raises the question of whether police are doing what our political representatives are asking them to do, or are our political representatives doing what the police are telling them to do.” Chan said he doesn’t see the union as acting in a political way by initiating the survey. On the social media platform X, The VPU reposted a Sept. 12 ABC attacked ad against Green mayoral candidate Pete Fry, as well as a campaign post from Arezo Zarrabian, an ABC council candidate and crime analyst with the VPD. After CTV News asked for comment on the account boosting partisan ABC messaging, the union then reposted a Vancouver Liberals post on X about intimate partner violence. The VPU isn’t the only union to weigh in on this year’s election. In a statement to CTV News, Scott Rose with the Vancouver Fire Fighters Local 18 said the union will be endorsing candidates. “We do candidate interviews for vacant council spots and consider our relationship with each incumbent council member to decide on who to endorse,” he said. “Vancouver Fire Fighters have a long tradition of doing these endorsements and we are non-partisan. We endorse people, not parties.” Prest argued that police getting involved in politics is more concerning than firefighters, in part because of the unique authority provided to them “to enact the force of the state.” “If there is a sense that the police are playing favorites within the political debate within a community, it can lead to a kind of chilling effect,” Prest said. “People may start to think twice about whether they feel comfortable engaging in that political debate for fear of falling afoul of the police service.” With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Andrew Weichel
