Vancouver-Langara

Vancouver-Langara covers south-central Vancouver, taking in the neighbourhoods of Marpole, Oakridge, and portions of the Sunset area between Granville Street and Main Street. Langara College anchors the riding's institutional landscape, and the Canada Line runs through the constituency, with the Oakridge-41st Avenue and Langara-49th Avenue stations providing rapid transit connectivity. Visible minorities comprise roughly four-fifths of the population, including large Chinese, South Asian, and Filipino communities.

Vancouver-Langara had been one of the few urban Vancouver ridings to consistently elect centre-right candidates, returning BC Liberal MLAs in every election since the riding's creation. Michael Lee, first elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2020, announced in July 2024 that he would not seek another term and would return to the private sector. The open seat created an opportunity for the NDP to break into one of its last remaining targets on Vancouver's west side.

Candidates

Sunita Dhir (BC NDP) — Born in India, Dhir moved to Canada in 1992 and has lived in the South Vancouver and Marpole communities for more than 30 years. She holds a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Science from Panjab University, as well as a TESOL certificate from Vancouver Community College. She worked as a language instructor for S.U.C.C.E.S.S., a non-profit organization that supports newcomers settling in British Columbia.

Bryan Breguet (Conservative Party) — Born in Switzerland, Breguet completed mandatory military service before moving to Montreal to study economics and politics, then relocated to Vancouver in 2008. He has worked as a political analyst and since 2011 has provided electoral projections and analysis on his website, Too Close To Call.

Scottford Price (BC Green Party) also contested the riding.

Local Issues

The transformation of the Oakridge Centre into a massive mixed-use redevelopment was the most visible physical change in the riding during the 2020-2024 term. The 28-acre site, centred on the Oakridge-41st Avenue Canada Line station, was under construction for a project that would include thousands of residential units, a nine-acre public park, a new community centre, and significant retail space. The scale of the development — with towers reaching more than 40 storeys — exemplified the transit-oriented densification that the NDP government encouraged through its housing legislation, but it also raised concerns among longtime residents about construction disruption, the loss of the neighbourhood's established commercial character, and whether schools and community services could absorb the anticipated population growth.

Langara College, serving approximately 19,000 students annually including a significant international cohort, was a major neighbourhood institution whose operations shaped the local economy. The college had returned to in-person instruction after the pandemic's remote-learning period, but declining international student enrolment — driven by federal policy changes tightening study permit approvals — rippled through the surrounding rental market, restaurants, and convenience stores that depended on student spending. The intersection of immigration policy, post-secondary funding, and local economic activity was a live issue in a riding where many residents had immigrated through educational pathways.

The riding's long-established centre-right political identity made it a closely watched contest. The collapse of BC United — which withdrew from the election in late August 2024, urging supporters to back the Conservatives — scrambled the political landscape. Some traditional Liberal voters shifted to the Conservatives, while others were reluctant to support a party led by John Rustad, who had been expelled from the Liberal caucus in 2022 for expressing skepticism about climate science. The NDP's pitch to moderate west-side voters centred on the government's record on health care recruitment, housing construction, and affordability measures, while the Conservatives positioned themselves as the alternative for voters frustrated with the pace of change on cost of living, public safety, and drug policy.