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Draft:Kareem Allam

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Kareem Allam
Born (1979-04-01) April 1, 1979 (age 47)
Vancouver
CitizenshipCanadian
EducationSimon Fraser University (BA, History)
OccupationsPolitician, Entrepreneur
Political party
Vancouver Liberals
SpouseHeidi Allam


Kareem Allam, born April 1, 1979, is a Canadian political operative and leader of the municipal political party, the Vancouver Liberals. He is running for Mayor of Vancouver in the 2026 municipal election.

Early Life

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Allam was born in Vancouver to immigrant parents and spent some time in Egypt before his family settled in Richmond.[1] His father, Mahmoud Allam, served as a colonel in the Egyptian army during the Six-day War and the Yom Kippur War before becoming executive manager of the Al Ahly Soccer Club.[2] His mother is Sudanese and spent time in a refugee camp in Lebanon before arriving in Canada where she attended Simon Fraser University.

Allam attended Simon Fraser University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History.[1]

Career

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In 2000 Allam was elected president of the Richmond constituency association for the Canadian Alliance party. At that time he was the youngest president in British Columbia.[3] He also became the Vice President of the Canadian Alliance Youth Association in BC and youth co-chair for the parties campaign in BC. At this point Allam cited health funding and tax cuts as the main issues motivating his involvement in politics.[4] During the 2000 federal election he worked on the successful campaign of Canadian Alliance candidate Joe Peschisolido.[1]

This campaign led to Allam working for the party leader Stockwell Day in Ottawa but he had returned to BC by 2004 when he chaired the campaign for Jasbir Cheema in the Surrey North Conservative Party nomination race.[1] This campaign was described as "controversial" as it involved Cheema unseating another sitting Conservative MP and accusations of illegitimate voter registration. Allam personally had to apologize over a photograph posted to the campaign website that had been altered to include Stephen Harper with Cheema. [5] Cheema would ultimately come in 4th place in the election and loose to the incumbent Chuck Cadman who ran as an independent.[6]

In 2005, Allam was named campaign coordinator for BC Liberal Mary Polak and helped to get her elected in the 2005 Provincial Election for Langley. He had assisted Polak in her nomination process which had been challenged by accusations of party interference.[7] Later that year, Allam was working as the managing director of the polling company ITrend as well as the campaign director for Richmond First, a centre right municipal party.[8] [9] However, he departed the Richmond campaign before the 2005 municipal election.[10]

In 2011, Allam was the deputy campaign manager for Kevin Falcon in the leadership of the BC Liberals. Falcon would ultimate lose to Christy Clark.[1]

Allam spent the following decade in the private sector, working for a variety of companies including Terasen Gas, the Vancouver Board of Trade and Fraser Health.[1]

In 2022, Allam returned to once again manage the campaign of Falcon. The campaign would be successful and result in Falcon becoming leader of the party.[11]

Later that year, Allam became the manager for Ken Sim's campaign for mayor of Vancouver. Sim had tried to recruit him in 2018 but Allam had declined due to a belief that the Non-Partisan Association were out of touch with voters.[1] This time Allam took the job due to his desire to hire 100 nurses and 100 police officers to address the mental health crisis in the downtown core. An idea that he brought to the campaign.[12] It was an issue that he believed would appeal to both right and left wing voters, allowing voters to "hear what they wanted to hear."[13] He also took a new approach to the Vancouver electorate by considering them a "Chinese city" and trying to focus on issues that mattered to the Asian community.[13] This campaign was successful and resulted in ABC Vancouver winning majorities on city council, school board, and parks board.[14]

Following the election, Allam along with Dianne Watts led the transition team for the incoming mayor.[15] Allam was chosen as the chief of staff and pledged to try to work across party lines despite the governing majority.[16] The first priority of the administration was to hire the promised police and nurses with Allam participating in talks with the Provincial government to get their support for the program.[17] Following council hearing from speakers, all of whom were opposed, Allam reiterated that they were having positive indications of support from the provincial government and that the police did not have funding to support the expanded program.[18] The measure was passed by council on November 22nd. [19] On February 6, 2023 it was announced that Allam was resigning his position as chief of staff and returning to the private sector. [20] Allam would later reveal that he had actually been fired due to allegedly being the source for accusations against Sim.[21]

In May 2023 after the city cleared encampments along Hastings Street, Allam publicly apologized saying that the action broke a promise he had made to organizations in the Downtown Eastside shortly after the 2022 election. He shared that he had committed that nothing would be done without a plan in place to provide housing for those being decamped.[22]

In the lead up to the 2024 provincial election Allam became a member of the BC NDP[23] and criticized both the BC United party[24] and the BC Conservatives[25] for their positions towards the Muslim community. Specifically, comments made by Conservative candidate Brent Chapman towards residential school survivors, Palestinians, and Muslims was cited as the point when he could no longer support them.[26]

In July 2025, Allam founded the Vancouver Liberals as a new municipal party.[27] He was acclaimed as the parties candidate for mayor in October 2025.[28]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Caddell, Nathan (22 April 2023). "Unsung Heroes 2023: Ace campaign manager Kareem Allam is returning to private practice (for now)". BC Business. Canada Wide Media Limited. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
  2. ↑ Hyslop, Katie (22 May 2026). "Kareem Allam Wants to Be Vancouver's Next Mayor". The Tyee. Jeanette Ageson. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
  3. ↑ "Allam elected prez at annual meeting". The Richmond Review. May 26, 2000. p. 4. Retrieved September 9, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Young people get involved with politics to make a difference in Canadian society". Cornwall Standard-Freeholder. November 8, 2000. p. 24. Retrieved September 9, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Laghi, Brian (7 April 2004). "B.C. candidate's website shut down over photo". The Globe and Mail. Andrew Saunders. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
  6. ↑ Hume, Mark (29 June 2004). "Supporters stick with former Conservative". The Globe and Mail. Andrew Saunders. Retrieved 9 September 2026.
  7. ↑ "Once-critical Liberals continued jobs-for-friends". The Vancouver Sun. April 9, 2005. p. 25. Retrieved September 9, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Poll puts McCallum behind Watts". The Vancouver Sun. October 29, 2005. p. 29. Retrieved September 9, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Chinese-language brochure riddles with errors". The Vancouver Sun. October 25, 2005. p. 25. Retrieved September 9, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Councillor breaks from Richmond First". The Richmond Review. February 23, 2005. p. 8. Retrieved September 9, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Leadership hopefuls seeking audit of 20,000 memberships". The Vancouver Sun. January 11, 2022. p. A2. Retrieved September 9, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Mooney, Harrison (15 July 2025). "Ken Sim Has a Shedding Problem". The Tyee. Jeanette Ageson. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
  13. 1 2 Mackin, Bob (27 April 2023). "Ken Sim's ex-chief of staff opens up about ABC election strategy". Business in Vancouver. Glacier Media. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
  14. ↑ "Sim rolls over Stewart in election where every ABC candidate win". The Vancouver Sun. October 17, 2022. p. A3. Retrieved September 10, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ Fumano, Dan (19 October 2022). "Easy as ABC — How an upstart party took over Vancouver city hall". The Vancouver Sun. Postmedia Network. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
  16. ↑ "New mayor, council set to tackle priorities". The Province. November 8, 2022. p. A6. Retrieved September 10, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Frances, Bula (1 November 2022). "Vancouver council prioritizes hiring police officers, psychiatric nurses to tackle prolific crime". The Globe and Mail. Andrew Saunders. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
  18. ↑ St. Denis, Jen (18 November 2022). "The Problem with Sending Police to Mental Health Calls". The Tyee. Jeanette Ageson. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
  19. ↑ "Vancouver council votes to fund 100 new police officers, 100 new mental health nurses". CBC News. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The Canadian Press. 22 November 2022.
  20. ↑ Mackin, Bob. "Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim's top staffer quits". Vol. Business in Vancouver, no. 6 February 2023. Glacier Media. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
  21. ↑ Fumano, Dan (21 March 2025). "Leaked report details investigation into 'baseless' allegations of a Vancouver police coverup". The Vancouver Sun. Pacific Newspaper Group. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
  22. ↑ Howell, Mike (5 May 2023). "ABC Vancouver's ex-chief of staff asks for forgiveness: 'I made a strong statement'". Vancouver is Awesome. Glacier Media. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
  23. ↑ Olaniyan, Olamide (14 October 2024). "Why a Key BC Liberal Strategist Is Voting NDP". The Tyee. Jeanette Ageson. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  24. ↑ DeRosa, Katie (12 June 2024). "B.C. United missteps divide Muslim community, strategist claims". CBC News. Canadian Broadcast Corporation. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  25. ↑ Weichel, Andrew (11 October 2024). "B.C. Muslim Association calls for Conservative candidate's removal over racist remarks". CTV News. Bell Media. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  26. ↑ Brockman, Charles; Gangdev, Srushti (17 October 2024). "Strategist says he's one of many turned off the BC Conservatives after party's refusal to let go of Chapman". CityNews Vancouver. Rogers Sports & Media. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  27. ↑ Howell, Mike (4 July 2025). "Vancouver has a new civic party — the Vancouver Liberals". Business in Vancouver. Glacier Media. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
  28. ↑ Howell, Mike (28 October 2025). "Kareem Allam officially launches mayoral campaign to unseat former boss". Business in Vancouver. Glacier Media. Retrieved 11 September 2026.
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