Vancouver-Quilchena

Vancouver-Quilchena covers some of the city's most affluent west-side neighbourhoods, including Kerrisdale, Quilchena, Arbutus Ridge, and parts of Shaughnessy. The riding features high median household incomes, some of the most expensive residential property in the country, and a Chinese-Canadian population comprising roughly 40 per cent of residents. Commercial life centres on the boutique retail strips along West 41st Avenue in Kerrisdale and West Boulevard in the Arbutus area, while the Arbutus Greenway — a linear park on a former railway corridor — runs through the riding.

Vancouver-Quilchena had been one of British Columbia's safest centre-right seats, returning BC Liberal candidates in every election since the riding's creation. Kevin Falcon won the seat in a 2022 by-election after succeeding Andrew Wilkinson as party leader, but he withdrew his candidacy and suspended BC United's campaign in August 2024, leaving the riding open.

Candidates

Dallas Brodie (Conservative Party) — A Vancouver-Quilchena native who graduated from Point Grey Secondary, Brodie earned a BA in Political Science from Princeton University and studied at La Sorbonne in Paris before attending the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She practised corporate and securities law and founded a legal aid practice for young offenders in 1992. Most recently, she worked as an arbitrator at the BC Residential Tenancy Branch. She ran in the 2022 by-election as the Conservative candidate, placing fourth.

Callista Ryan (BC NDP) — Ryan is a communications professional and youth advocate who serves as a board director of the BC Council for Families. She attended Western University as a Loran Scholar and served as co-chair of the BC Young New Democrats. She contributed to the London Environmental Network as a board member and committee chair.

Michael Barkusky (BC Green Party) — A chartered accountant and financial executive, Barkusky has long combined his professional expertise with progressive advocacy as a director, treasurer, and economics spokesperson for the Board of Change, a Vancouver-based business group. A veteran Green candidate, he contested Vancouver-Quilchena in 2017 and 2020 and also ran federally in Vancouver-Granville in 2015.

Caroline Ying-Mei Wang ran as an independent candidate.

Local Issues

The collapse of BC United and the realignment of the centre-right vote was the defining political story of the riding. For more than three decades, Vancouver-Quilchena had been a reliable BC Liberal stronghold. Falcon's decision to pull BC United from the election and urge supporters to back the Conservatives represented a seismic shift in the riding's political landscape. Some traditional Liberal voters were comfortable transferring their support to the Conservatives under John Rustad; others — particularly those who had supported the party's more moderate, business-oriented wing — were uncertain about a party whose leader had been expelled from the Liberal caucus for questioning climate science.

The NDP government's housing legislation was a persistent source of debate in a riding where property values ranked among the highest in the country. Bill 44's multiplex requirements applied directly to the single-family neighbourhoods of Kerrisdale, Quilchena, and Arbutus Ridge, where detached homes on large lots defined the streetscape. The speculation and vacancy tax, which had been in effect since 2018, continued to generate revenue — with the majority coming from foreign owners and satellite families — and the province argued it had helped return thousands of units to the long-term rental market. But some residents viewed the cumulative regulatory burden, including the city's separate empty homes tax, as government overreach that penalized legitimate homeowners.

Commercial vitality along the riding's retail corridors remained a concern. The boutique shops and independent restaurants on West 41st Avenue in Kerrisdale and along West Boulevard faced mounting pressures from rising commercial rents, changing consumer habits driven by e-commerce, and the lingering effects of pandemic-era disruptions. Several long-established businesses had closed during the 2020-2024 term, and commercial vacancies were visible along corridors that had once been fully occupied. The cost of living, including high property taxes and insurance costs, weighed on homeowners and business operators alike.