Ken Sim

Born in Vancouver to Teochew Hong Kong immigrants Francis Sim (d. 1999) and Maria Theresa Kim (1932–2016), Sim attended Magee Secondary School, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, and the UBC Sauder School of Business, graduating with a BComm in finance in 1993. He also holds a FCPA and FCA accounting designation.

Sim co-founded Nurse Next Door Home Healthcare Services in 2001, and has founded multiple businesses since then.

Mental health

During the 2022 campaign, Sim promised he would hire 100 nurses to join the previously established Car 87 program, alongside 100 new police officers. On February 14, 2023, Vancouver City Council voted to allocate $2.8 million to Vancouver Coastal Health, to hire 58 mental health workers "to support people who are suffering from mental illness combined with lack of stable housing and substance abuse issues."

Sim resides in West Point Grey with his wife and their four sons. He has said that his children's inability to see "a future for themselves in Vancouver" was a primary reason for his involvement in politics.

Hong Kong politician Bernard Charnwut Chan is a first cousin. Sim's father was Chan's maternal uncle. Canadian intelligence analyst Scott McGregor and journalist Ina Mitchell noted in their book, The Mosaic Effect, that Bernard's father, Robin Chan, who is Sim's uncle, held the role of vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), a top-ranking organization in the Chinese Communist Party's united front network.

Sim has taken training programs held by Landmark Worldwide, described by some as a cult, crediting the training with teaching him how to have "authentic conversations" and giving him the confidence to run for mayor.

Early political career

Sim first ran for mayor of Vancouver with the Non-Partisan Association in the 2018 Vancouver municipal election and finished the runner-up to Kennedy Stewart.

Controversies

Sim was criticized by members of the Green Party of Vancouver for converting a boardroom at Vancouver City Hall into a personal gym.

Foreign interference allegations

In 2023, The Globe and Mail published statements from an anonymous Canadian Security Intelligence Service source alleging that China interfered in the 2022 Vancouver municipal election. Sim rejected these allegations and stated "If there's proof of foreign interference in our election, I want to know about it because I'm a Canadian … but right now there are a bunch of insinuations."

Sean Orr drug hoax

In February 2026, Vancouver mayor Ken Sim alleged at a Chinese-language media briefing on February 6 that COPE councillor Sean Orr had distributed illegal drugs on Christmas Day. CBC News reported that the allegation was unsubstantiated and that Orr denied it, stating he had been visiting family on the Sunshine Coast at the time.

Sim apologized to Orr by phone and addressed reporters on February 27, stating that he had spoken with Orr and apologized but declined to answer further questions.

On March 3, 2026, Sim held a press conference stating that his comments were based on an unverified photograph shown to him by a member of the public. Orr said the apology was insufficient and stated he was considering a defamation lawsuit and a complaint to Vancouver's integrity commissioner.