Vancouver South

Vancouver South occupies the southeastern corner of the city, bounded roughly by Kingsway and 41st Avenue to the north, Cambie Street to the west, and Boundary Road to the east, extending south to the Fraser River. The riding takes in the neighbourhoods of Sunset, Victoria–Fraserview, Killarney, and the southern portions of Marpole and South Cambie. It is among the most culturally diverse ridings in Canada: the 2021 Census recorded four pan-ethnic groups each exceeding 10% of the population — East Asian (38.1%), European (18.7%), South Asian (17.8%), and Southeast Asian (16.0%). More than 60% of residents are immigrants, and in Victoria–Fraserview, 84% of residents identify as visible minorities.

Candidates

Harjit S. Sajjan (Liberal) Born in the village of Bombeli in Punjab, India, Sajjan immigrated to British Columbia with his family at age five. He served 11 years as a Vancouver Police Department officer, specializing in gang crime and organized-crime investigation, while simultaneously pursuing a military career with the British Columbia Regiment. Rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina and completed three tours in Kandahar, Afghanistan, receiving the Meritorious Service Medal for reducing Taliban influence in the province and the Order of Military Merit. He became the first Sikh Canadian to command a Canadian Army reserve regiment. First elected in Vancouver South in 2015, he was appointed Minister of National Defence.

Sean McQuillan (NDP) A Cree Metis labour activist, McQuillan focused his campaign on affordable housing and childcare, drawing on his work to improve childcare support for union families and shift workers. He advocated for a people-first community that ensures housing access for all families.

Sukhbir Singh Gill (Conservative) The Conservative candidate for Vancouver South, Gill campaigned on themes of economic opportunity, community safety, and support for small businesses in one of Canada's most diverse urban constituencies.

Anthony Cook (PPC) The People's Party of Canada candidate for the riding, Cook represented the party's platform of reduced immigration, fiscal restraint, and opposition to vaccine mandates during the 2021 campaign.

About the Riding

Vancouver South is home to the Punjabi Market on Main Street between 48th and 51st Avenues — recognized as the oldest "Little India" in North America and the first place outside South Asia to feature Punjabi-language street signs. Established in 1970, the market has been a commercial and cultural anchor for the city's South Asian community, with sari shops, sweet vendors, jewellers, and restaurants lining the corridor. Though the market has faced economic challenges from suburban migration and competition from Surrey's larger South Asian commercial districts, it remains a powerful symbol of the community's history in Vancouver.

The riding's residential fabric is shaped by successive waves of immigration. Victoria–Fraserview — where over 52% of residents are of Chinese descent and another 12% are South Asian — is among the most linguistically diverse neighbourhoods in Canada, with nearly half of residents speaking a language other than English at home. The Sunset neighbourhood mirrors this diversity, with roughly equal shares of English, Chinese, and Punjabi speakers. The neighbourhood commercial strips along Fraser Street, Victoria Drive, and Knight Street are lined with Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, and Filipino businesses.

The service sector, retail trade, and manufacturing are the major sources of employment, and the average family income exceeds $71,000. Nearly 30% of residents over 25 hold a university certificate or degree. Transit access via the Canada Line's Marine Drive and Langara–49th Avenue stations connects the riding to downtown and the airport. Housing affordability was a central issue in the 2021 campaign — with Vancouver's real estate prices among the highest in North America, the gap between household income and homeownership was particularly acute in a riding where many families depend on modest service-sector wages.