David Wray
is Seeking Nomination with COPE.
✓ For Affordability and Accessibility
✓ For Arts and Culture
✓ For Your Right to the City
Candidate Statement
I know what it’s like to feel insecure in the city you love.
I’m running with COPE because Vancouver should be a city where workers, renters, families and the elderly can do more than just get by, but can feel stable, and take part in a thriving community.
I’ve lived the insecurity that many of our neighbours face: I’ve always been a renter, I’ve felt the anxiety of making ends meet, and I’ve spent years in hospitality, where low wages and unpredictable hours were the norm. Today, I teach people to question unequal systems and to organize for better ones.
Those experiences shape my politics: housing is a human right, public services are non‑negotiable, and a livable environment is our shared responsibility.
These values are more than just words. I will put people before profit, fund and expand public services, strengthen tenant power, and deliver climate justice, not just as slogans, but as concrete commitments.
I’m grounded in housing justice because I know what it means to fear the next rent increase. I will fight for non‑market housing, stronger renter protections, and real vacancy control so people can put down roots in their own neighbourhoods, rather than feel alienated from them.
I believe in public services because they are the lifelines of an equitable city. From libraries, community spaces and cultural centres, to pools, protected bike lanes, and public spaces in general, we need to invest, not cut. That’s why I have a commitment to well-funded public infrastructure and to defend our public realm from austerity and privatization.
To fight for your right to the city.
I’m invested in environmental justice because climate impacts are already here and they hit hardest in communities with the fewest buffers. Linking climate action to housing, transit, and health matches what I see in classrooms and in the community: effective climate policy is public, affordable, and fair.
Finally, I’m rooted in community service. I have a deep belief that change is built through relationships, care, and collective effort. That’s the spirit I’ll bring to City Hall: listen first, organize with the people most affected, and deliver.
If you share the vision of homes people can afford, services people can trust, and an environment that sustains us, I’m asking for your support.
Together, we can make Vancouver a city that truly works for the many, not the few.
We only get better, when we succeed together.
A City for Everyone. Not Just Investors.
Vancouver is a renter‑majority city.
Yet our politics still treat housing as an asset, culture as expendable, and care as optional.
People are bring pushed out of their neighbourhoods.
Artists lose space to create.
Public life is policed instead of supported.
I’m running with COPE to fight for your right to the city. An idea that the people who live, work, and create here should be able to stay, participate, and shape Vancouver’s future.
The Right to the City
An equitable city doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s something we have to fight for!
The right to the city means:
The right to stay in your neighbourhood
The right to housing that isn’t treated as a commodity
The right to public space designed with dignity
The right to culture, creativity, and collective life
The right to safety rooted in care, not punishment
Vancouver’s crisis is structural.
We built a city around speculation and continue to under‑invested in the things that actually make city life livable.
My campaign is about making the deliberate shift from speculative urbanism to social infrastructure.
Housing Is Social Infrastructure
Housing is not a luxury.
It’s the basis for participation, health, and dignity.
Vancouver is a renter‑majority city. So renter stability isn’t a side issue, it’s the democratic centre of housing policy.
I will fight for:
Large‑scale non‑market housing through co‑ops, non‑profits, and Community Land Trusts
Strong tenant protections, including right‑of‑return and anti‑displacement measures
A strengthened Empty Homes Tax, with revenue dedicated to non‑market housing
Provincial partnership to curb speculation and recover housing from investment use
Arts & Culture Are Public Infrastructure
Arts & culture are not simply decorations for a “successful” city.
They are how communities build identity, resilience, and shared meaning.
British Columbia has one of the strongest cultural labour forces in the country, yet artists and cultural workers face extreme housing and space insecurity. That contradiction is political, not inevitable.
I will fight for:
Artist housing and live‑work spaces built into non‑market developments
Long‑term protection and acquisition of studios, venues, and cultural spaces
Stable, multi‑year funding for community‑based and culturally specific organizations
Treating cultural space the same way we treat housing: as essential infrastructure
Without secure spaces to live and create, culture disappears.
Dignity Is Designed
Public space tells people whether they belong or whether they’re merely tolerated.
Clean, accessible washrooms.
Well‑funded libraries.
Parks, plazas, and community centres designed for real use.
These are not “extras.”
They are infrastructure that provides dignity.
I support:
A citywide network of clean, staffed, year‑round public washrooms
Libraries as hubs for learning, care, and climate resilience
Public spaces designed for accessibility, safety, and everyday life
A city that withholds dignity creates crisis, then punishes people for it.
Community First, Not Policing
We cannot police our way out of inequality.
Real safety comes from:
Stable housing
Accessible public services
Mental health and peer support
Culture, connection, and care
When we underfund community infrastructure, harm increases and policing expands to fill the gap.
I believe in community‑first approaches that prevent harm before it happens and treating people as neighbours, not problems!
Grounded, Credible, and Proven
This isn’t just about values; I’ve grounded it in evidence and research.
Vancouver’s Empty Homes Tax reduced vacancy and generated hundreds of millions for housing.
Community Land Trusts already deliver permanent affordability.
Libraries, cultural infrastructure, and public space investments consistently outperform enforcement‑heavy approaches.
I’ve laid out this framework in Transforming Vancouver into a City for Everyone because radical change should also be durable, credible, and measurable.
We need a better way forward.
Let’s Take Back the City Together!
This campaign is people‑powered.
It only works if we build it together.
Join the campaign.
Become a COPE member.
Donate if you’re able.
Bring your people with you.
Because Vancouver only gets better when we succeed together.