Vancouver elects its youngest city councillor ever at 21

Solomon Yi-Kieran, a 21-year-old UBC history student, became Vancouver's youngest ever city councillor in Saturday's election, running on a COPE ticket focused on housing affordability and opposition to AI data centre development.

Yi-Kieran's election marks a generational shift on council after a four-year right-leaning majority under Ken Sim. The Coalition of Progressive Electors won 4 seats, matching the Vancouver Greens, whose leader Pete Fry won the mayoralty.

"We have not seen a very positive decade," Yi-Kieran told Vancouver Is Awesome, citing generational political defeats from Bernie Sanders' 2016 loss to federal NDP vote-share declines. "It really is a huge honor to be the youngest-ever elected city councillor."

Yi-Kieran ran because they noticed apathy toward politics in their generation, particularly around housing—where young people feel unable to own homes or live as comfortably as previous generations. COPE's campaign centered on AI and data centres, holding rallies opposing their construction on claims they could drive up energy prices and shrink drinking water supplies. "Whether we're fighting for housing, whether we're fighting on the AI data center issue, having somebody who's going to represent an entire generation that I think has been left out of a lot of political discussions is going to be really important," Yi-Kieran said.

Fry's victory ended Sim's tenure. In his concession call, Sim offered to help with the transition. "Ken was very gracious in offering his assistance on making sure I steward the city well," Fry said election night.