Mike McGraw, a lifelong North Shore resident, entrepreneur, and former North Vancouver School Board Trustee, has announced his candidacy for Mayor of the City of North Vancouver in the October 2026 municipal election.
McGraw has lived in North Vancouver permanently since 2008. According to the news release, he founded and led a North Vancouver-based software development company for more than 15 years, creating over 20 local jobs, and has been an entrepreneur since 1993.
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His record in public service includes chairing the North Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council, serving as an elected trustee on both the North Vancouver School Board and the District Library Board, and sitting on the advisory committee for the Cheakamus Centre outdoor school. He currently serves as a Strata Council President in the City and as a director of the nonprofit working to revive North Vancouver’s Canada Day Parade, with its first event scheduled for Civic Plaza on July 1, 2026.
McGraw says he is running in part because of low voter turnout — just 22.64 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2022 municipal election — and what he describes as a planning culture that prioritizes “polite consensus and institutional decorum over robust debate and public accountability.”
His campaign centres on three priorities: fiscal accountability, including full transparency on the City’s exposure to cost overruns at the $3.86-billion North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant; infrastructure and transportation, including easing traffic gridlock through collaboration with TransLink, the Province, and neighbouring municipalities; and trust and transparency, including meaningful public consultation before decisions are finalized.
According to the news release, McGraw also plans to hold regular open public Q&A events, which he is calling “Meet the Mayor” sessions.
