On iOS, Arctic for Lemmy supports push notifications. And Ice Cubes for Mastodon supports push notifications as well.
On Android, I've been using Moshidon for Mastodon and Thunder for Lemmy. Both apps support Unified Push (it's experimental for Thunder, requires a self hosted server as well).
Yeah you'll be hardpressed to find polling data. Not sure if anyone is even polling people to get a picture of who's leading.
I've taken up the strategy of voting for candidates who will bolster the party I want to see more of. So comparing the list of candidates: https://votemate.org/vancouver2025/candidates/?riding=762
To the current council: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_City_Council#Since_2022
I'll probably pick someone based on that. Doing your own research for municipal level is quite difficult unless you go out of your way to talk to/interact with candidates and to attend the all candidate debate. Finding videos online hasn't been easy either.
Good luck!