William Azaroff

He is chief executive of Brightside, a non-profit housing provider, and earlier spent over a decade in executive roles at Vancity Credit Union. OneCity, one of Vancouver's progressive parties, chose him as its mayoral candidate. He is named in the Vancouver Mayoral Election Winner race and withdrew from the 2026 Vancouver mayoral election on 8 September 2026.

Career

Azaroff has led Brightside, a non-profit housing provider with more than 1,100 homes in Vancouver and Burnaby, for about six years. Before that he held executive posts at Vancity Credit Union for over a decade, where he managed a community investment portfolio reported at about four billion dollars. Vancity Lookout also notes his work with the MODO car share and the Vancouver International Film Festival. OneCity picked him as its mayoral nominee over Amanda Burrows at its annual general meeting in February 2026.

Positions

As a candidate, Azaroff questioned the city's reliance on inclusionary zoning and proposed that developers pay cash into funds for below-market projects run by non-profits, which he argued can deliver affordable housing better than private developers. Vancity Lookout reports that his platform also covered keeping and expanding libraries and community centres, allowing more small and mid-sized apartment buildings across neighbourhoods, and more funding for artists and arts groups. On 8 September 2026 he withdrew and endorsed Pete Fry of the Vancouver Greens as the single candidate of the progressive parties, saying he shared voters' fear of another majority for Mayor Ken Sim's ABC party.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Daily Hive · Vancity Lookout