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Vancouver will have a new mayor come November.

Non-Partisan Association members have elected Peter Ladner as its leader, ousting the incumbent Mayor Sam Sullivan by a slim 80-vote margin.

Ladner, a second-term city councillor, won his party's mayoral nomination with 1,066 votes compared to Sullivan's 986.

"This has been a very difficult, hard-fought battle," Ladner told reporters after the surprise win. "To be honest, I didn't expect I had won it ... obviously there was a concern, and some NPA members wanted a change to win the next election."

Both sides struck a conciliatory tone after the results came down.

“I wish there was a way to do with it without having to deliver this blow to Sam Sullivan,” Ladner said. “He has worked harder I’m sure than any other mayor in the history of this city.”

Ladner reiterated his message that he had challenged Sullivan out of "loyalty to the NPA."

"I know this has been tremendously difficult. Sam and I have been working together since even before I went into politics," Ladner said, recalling that Sullivan once tried to convince Ladner to run for office over lunch at Provence, the west side restaurant.

For his part, Sullivan congratulated his rival on the upset victory.

“Today was about the NPA moving in a new direction. The membership has spoken and say they want a fresh vision. They want new leadership,” he said.

Sullivan spoke of the pride he felt in Vancouver at having elected a mayor with a physical disability.

"Vancouverites provided inspiration to so many people with disabilities around the world," Sullivan said.

But for all the post-battle pleasantries, it was a nomination campaign that grew increasingly bitter in recent days, with Ladner bashing his council colleague over leadership style and policy direction.

And before today's results came through, Ladner again questioned whether the party under Sullivan was in a position to win come November.

“I’m a little more concerned than the mayor about our prospects in the November elections,” Ladner said during a debate with Sullivan yesterday as NPA members filed in to a downtown hotel to cast their votes.

Supporters for the NPA’s opponents, Ladner said, already outnumbered the party 2 to 1.

“We are going to have a big, difficult battle with [left-of-centre political parties] Vision Vancouver and COPE,” Ladner said.

Vision holds its own nomination meeting next Sunday. COPE has yet to declare if it will run a mayoral candidate.

Tags: vancouver, peter ladner, politics, npa, sam sullivan