British ColumbiaEven through inclement weather and a riveting Toronto Blue Jays game, CBC B.C.’s treat count reveals that the Halloween spirit remained alive and well. Some readers told us they gave out 1,000 pieces of candy or more.CBC B.C.’s annual treat count reveals province’s longstanding trick-or-treating hotspots have persistedAkshay Kulkarni · CBC News · Posted: Nov 01, 2025 5:53 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesA house decorated for Halloween is pictured in Vancouver, B.C., on October 28, 2025. (Ethan Cairns/CBC)Even through inclement weather and a riveting Toronto Blue Jays game, CBC B.C.’s annual treat count revealed that the Halloween spirit of trick-or-treating remained alive and well in the province.As part of an annual tradition, in collaboration with Simon Fraser University’s City Program, we asked readers in B.C. to tell us how much candy they gave out and displayed the results on an interactive map.Longstanding Halloween hotspots — like Douglas Park in Vancouver and Queens Park in New Westminster — once again came to the fore. One house in the Douglas Park area recorded 2,500 trick-or-treaters.Andy Yan, director of SFU’s City Program, said a rainfall warning in Metro Vancouver ultimately didn’t do much to quieten the demand for candy.”Overall, the [treat] patterns are pretty much in line with previous years,” he said in an interview.Yan likened the Halloween spirit of giving away treats to potlatch culture, and how one’s neighbours are judged not by what they have, but what they gave away.”The more important thing is that generosity to strangers,” he said.CBC has run the annual treat counter for years with SFU’s City Program, as part of a way to gauge civic engagement. (Ethan Cairns/CBC)This year, readers who counted the number of costumed trick-or-treaters at their door were also asked if they made an effort to hand out Canadian candy, in light of a movement to buy Canadian across the country.While the responses to that question were split evenly between yes and no, Yan said he’s interested to see whether specific Canadian candy shows up next year.Blue Jays feverYan said that the Blue Jays’ game against the Los Angeles Dodgers — which started at 5 p.m. PT — was also a factor in turnout on Halloween night.But he said he noticed that many houses were celebrating both the baseball game and Halloween, with one in the Trinity Park neighbourhood projecting the game through their windows.This house in the Trinity Park neighbourhood of Vancouver had Halloween decorations up, but also the Toronto Blue Jays game. (Submitted by Andy Yan)Douglas Park resident Bruce Verchere, who has been counting trick-or-treaters at his house for a decade, said he normally projects Thriller or another spooky film through his windows on Halloween.But this year, he was one of many who celebrated the Jays by putting them on one of the screens.”We had over 1,500 [trick-or-treaters] in 2021 and then it’s gone up every year since then, over 3,000 last year,” he said.”And then this year, we just took a dip back to about 2,200 because of the rain.”While many CBC readers said that inflation didn’t significantly affect what they gave out, Verchere and his wife spent around $500 on treats this year, which was higher than previous years.”It’s a lot, but it’s so much fun for us,” he said. “We really get a lot of pleasure out of sharing the joy with the kids and seeing all the costumes.” ABOUT THE AUTHORAkshay Kulkarni is an award-winning journalist who has worked at CBC British Columbia since 2021. Based in Vancouver, he is most interested in data-driven stories. You can email him at akshay.kulkarni@cbc.ca.
Treat count results show that rain and Blue Jays didn’t damper Metro Vancouver’s Halloween spirit
