Vancouver East

Vancouver East is a working-class, ethnically diverse federal riding on the city's east side, stretching from the industrial waterfront along Burrard Inlet south through some of Vancouver's oldest residential neighbourhoods. The riding includes Hastings-Sunrise, Grandview-Woodland, Strathcona, and portions of the Downtown Eastside and Mount Pleasant. It has been held by the NDP or its predecessor, the CCF, without interruption since 1935, making it one of the longest-held left-leaning ridings in Canadian history.

Candidates

Jenny Kwan (NDP) is the incumbent, first elected federally in 2015. Born in Hong Kong, she immigrated to Canada at age nine. After graduating from Simon Fraser University, she worked as a community legal advocate in the Downtown Eastside. In 1993, she became the youngest city councillor elected in Vancouver's history. She served as a BC MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant from 1996 to 2015, becoming one of the first Chinese-Canadians in the provincial legislature and serving as a cabinet minister. In Ottawa, she has been the NDP's critic for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship and for Housing.

Mark Wiens (Liberal) is a third-generation East Vancouver resident and bilingual community builder who works as a realtor. He serves as a Director at Greater Vancouver Realtors, where he works on professional standards. He is a small business owner and first-time candidate.

Lita Cabal (Conservative) ran on a platform emphasizing public safety and affordability for the riding's residents.

Nikida Steel (Green Party) is a bilingual advocate of Metis and Italian descent and a mother of five. She holds academic credentials from Douglas College and the Justice Institute of British Columbia, and works in restorative justice and mediation, having recently been added to the Associate Roster for Mediate BC.

Kimball Cariou (Communist) and Meghan Emily Murphy (People's Party) also stood as candidates in the riding.

About the Riding

Vancouver East is one of the most socioeconomically varied ridings in Canada. Its western edge includes portions of the Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood synonymous with Canada's most acute intersection of poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and addiction. Its eastern reaches, including Hastings-Sunrise and parts of Grandview-Woodland, are more traditionally residential, with tree-lined streets, older character homes, and a growing number of infill developments. The Commercial Drive corridor, running through Grandview-Woodland, is one of Vancouver's most celebrated neighbourhood high streets, known for its independent shops, cafes, and cultural diversity.

Strathcona, one of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, has historically been home to successive waves of immigrants—British, Irish, Japanese, Chinese, and others—and borders Chinatown and the Hogan's Alley area, once the centre of Vancouver's Black community. Approximately 42 percent of the riding's population are immigrants, and 22 percent are of Chinese ancestry. Roughly 63 percent of residents are renters.

In 2025, the opioid crisis and housing affordability remained the riding's defining issues. The toxic drug supply continued to claim lives at alarming rates, and the question of how to address addiction, homelessness, and street disorder divided voters. Housing costs pushed long-time residents out of neighbourhoods undergoing rapid gentrification, while healthcare access—particularly mental health services and family physician shortages—was a persistent concern. The riding's proximity to the port of Vancouver also made trade policy and waterfront industrial land use relevant local issues.