New rules. No machine. No excuses.
Vancouver's 2018 mayoral race was the first run under sweeping new campaign finance rules: corporate and union donations banned outright, individual contributions capped at $1,200. The war chests that decided past elections were suddenly illegal — every campaign had to be grassroots now.
For an independent facing a crowded field of party-backed rivals, that was both the threat and the opening. With no machine to lean on, every dollar and every volunteer had to come through the campaign's own infrastructure. Ours to build — and we weren't starting cold. We'd powered Kennedy's digital fundraising in his federal races, so we knew what his supporters would do when the tools made it easy.
An identity that looked like a winner.
Independents fight a credibility gap before they fight opponents. The visual identity had to close it on sight: a modern, confident campaign brand with guidelines that kept every lawn sign, ad, and web page unmistakably Kennedy. When a campaign looks inevitable, voters — and donors — treat it that way.
A website with one job: raise.
On NationBuilder, we built an action-oriented campaign site where donating was never more than a click away. Targeted digital advertising recruited supporters and drove them into journeys that turned interest into dollars and dollars into volunteers.
And because a $1,200 cap means winning on volume, we made sure no ask went uncollected — including a Square-powered credit card setup so the campaign could take donations in person, at the door and at events, as easily as online.
85% of every dollar raised came through the website — under the tightest finance rules in the city's history.The campaign by the numbers
History, by 984 votes.
The margin was 0.57 percent. Nine hundred and eighty-four votes. At that distance, nothing is a detail: the brand that made an independent look inevitable, the site that converted attention into donations, the card reader that caught the last few hundred dollars at the door.
Kennedy Stewart became Vancouver's first independent mayor in more than thirty years — proof that when big money leaves the race, infrastructure decides it.
