For the November 2008 election, Vision was seen as a serious contender for control of the city due to the perceived unpopularity of the Sam Sullivan's NPA team.

The choices were Gregor Robertson (a local "green" businessman, owner of the Happy Planet juice company and a provincial New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly for Vancouver-Fairview), Raymond Louie (serving as a Vision city councillor), and Allan De Genova (an independent Vancouver Park Board commissioner who defected from the NPA because of his dislike of Sullivan's leadership).

The original dynamic for this contest shifted when the NPA voted to change their mayoral candidate, replacing the incumbent Sullivan with longtime councillor and businessman Peter Ladner, the editor of the Business in Vancouver newspaper.

Gregor Robertson was nominated to be Vision's mayoral candidate in 2008 despite his perceived similarity to NPA rival Sam Sullivan.

Vision Vancouver, COPE and the Greens agreed to support Gregor Robertson as mayor, avoid running competing slates and coordinate other elements of the election.

Vision ran a slate of candidates in the 2018 election – including Heather Deal, Catherine Evans, Diego Cardona, Tanya Paz and Wei Qiao Zhang – for city council.