One question before Vancouver’s 2026 election is what will happen with the four incumbent politicians who were elected with ABC in 2022 and now sit as Independents.
These Independents — three park board commissioners and a school board trustee — would tie the Greens as Vancouver’s second-largest group of elected officials if they were to formally unite.
We now have the first part of the answer: Park board commissioner Scott Jensen confirmed last week that he will seek re-election this year, running with the upstart Vancouver Liberals.
The Liberals were
last year by a group including Kareem Allam, a political strategist who managed the successful 2022 campaign of Mayor Ken Sim and ABC, and plans to run for mayor this October against his former party.
Jensen said he chose to join the Liberals because he was impressed with Allam’s work ethic in the 2022 campaign and his ability to bring people together.
“To be a part of a party with a leader that looks at bringing people together is really important to me,” Jensen said this week. “And juxtaposing that to what I’ve seen with ABC over the last three years, where it’s ‘our way or the highway’ — that’s where I see a difference in Ken’s leadership style and where Kareem comes from. I think we’ll be better as a city if we’re working together.”
Jensen was elected in 2022 along with every other candidate on the ABC slate for park board, council and school board. But he and fellow former party-mates Laura Christensen and Brennan Bastyovanszky left the party in December 2023 when Sim made the
that he wanted to abolish the elected park board.
Vancouver school board chairperson Victoria Jung was also elected with ABC, but
in 2024. She has said a number of factors contributed to her decision and the final straw was the attempt by Sim and ABC councillors to halt the work of the city’s integrity commissioner.
Coun. Rebecca Bligh is the fifth ex-ABCer currently in office. She was
in February 2025 when the party president said she was “not a core-value fit.”
Last September, Bligh
she was running for mayor with her own upstart party called Vote Vancouver.
Since then, some city hall watchers have wondered whether the ex-ABCers might go with Bligh or Allam. But Jensen said Bligh didn’t make much of an effort to bring “the Indies” into her new party.
Allam says landing Jensen is a coup for the Liberals.
“We now have an elected official,” Allam said. “We’re on the board now. Before it was just this political strategist running around by himself, pumping out good content. But now we’ve got a vote on the park board. And we might get some more later.”
Recruiting the other three Independents is a priority for the Liberals, Allam says, and he’s “aggressively pursuing” them.
Those three haven’t yet committed to any party.
Bastyovanszky says he plans to seek a second term as a commissioner, and he likes Allam’s pledge to retain and strengthen the independent board. But he has enjoyed serving without a party affiliation for the past two years, he says, and may want to remain independent.
Christensen, who had her second child last month, says she hasn’t yet decided whether she will seek a second term or whether it might be with any party.
Jung said she hopes to “continue serving our community and contributing to Vancouver’s future in a meaningful way,” and will share more information about her “next steps” at a later date.
Jung did, however, mention that she is interested in “running for a seat at a different table,” suggesting the possibility of a run for either park board or city council.
Meanwhile, Allam is facing a
lawsuit filed last year by Sim
, with the mayor accusing his former campaign manager of defamation. Allam and local businessman Alex G. Tsakumis were both accused of defaming Sim by making statements that the mayor drinks alcohol to excess and has, at least once, driven while intoxicated. Allam and Tsakumis both filed
in court denying that they defamed Sim.
The case is still before the courts and no trial date has been set.
