From 1972 to 1986 COPE competed with The Electors' Action Movement, which governed the city under prominent federal Liberal mayor Art Phillips in the mid-1970s.

By the late 1970s, a breakaway faction of TEAM, comprising provincial NDP supporters and led by future premier Michael Harcourt formed an electoral alliance with COPE, from which both parties benefited.

When Harcourt stepped down to become a provincial candidate and a renewed NPA led by future premier Gordon Campbell absorbed TEAM's two remaining councillors, COPE became the senior partner in its coalition with the Civic Independents.

Nominating Rankin as its mayoral candidate, COPE fielded a virtually full slate of candidates (leaving three open spaces for the incumbent Civic Independents) but was badly beaten, the NPA returning to power for the first time in 14 years, and deprived for the next two years of Rankin's leadership in the council chamber.

Led by anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson, the coalition made few gains, but under the leadership of Jim Green in 1990, the party came close to winning the election.

Starting in 1993, COPE nominated candidates for all civic offices (mayor, city councillor, school board trustee, and park commissioner) but its closer affiliation with an incumbent provincial NDP government and inability to negotiate a deal with the Greens, who began siphoning votes in increasing numbers, resulted in flagging performance.

COPE did not win any seats in 1996, thanks to a strong showing for the Greens and a left-right coalition called VOICE, led by Rankin's wife Connie Fogal and 1984 mayoral candidate Jonathan Baker.

Former chief coroner and RCMP officer Larry Campbell, fictionalized on the CBC show Da Vinci's Inquest, was nominated by COPE as its mayoral candidate.

Although Campbell attempted to keep the Greens in the fold, a new provincial leadership had taken control and pulled the party out of its municipal coalitions.

Clarke's takeover of the NPA and her purge of its centrists was highly unpopular with Vancouver voters, especially her movement's deposition of the incumbent mayor, an ally of Campbell.

As the governing party, COPE created a new Climate Task Force, implemented ethical purchasing policy, built bike routes, and legalized secondary suites, among other initiatives.

It was not until Gregor Robertson was nominated as Vision Vancouver's mayoral candidate that formal negotiations between the two organizations began in early summer of 2008.

On December 8, 2013, Allan Wong, COPE's sole elected politician, resigned from the party to join Vision Vancouver.

[13] The community organizer and activist stated that the focuses of her campaign would be giving citizens a voice and keeping housing affordable.