#munipoli Matters - ISSUE 53 - Massive changes from BC's municipal elections
Almost 90 municipalities across British Columbia have sent new heads of council to council chambers on election night
Welcome to another exciting edition of #munipoil Matters, where we go all in on covering the often under-reported area of municipal politics and local government.
Some 160 municipalities across British Columbia held local elections to elect mayors, councillors, trustees and electoral area directors on Saturday, October 15. I wrote this some time ago reviewing some of the higher profile races happening.
Now that the election has concluded, let’s see how things went down.
Vancouver makes history and shifts rightward
The era of ‘Sim City’ has now arrived.
Polls were right that incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart and his 2018 challenger Ken Sim (leading the ABC Vancouver municipal slate) ended up being the top two options Vancouver votes had on their minds…but in the end the margin of victory wasn’t close at all.
Sim will become not only Vancouver’s first non-Caucasian mayor, but the first Chinese Canadian to assume the role.
In 2018 Stewart beat Sim, when he ran as the mayoral candidate for the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) by less than 1% and 1,000 votes. This time, Sim beat Stewart by over 36,000 votes and getting 51% of the vote. ABC swept City Council, winning 7 of the 10 seats, with the Greens carrying 2 and incumbent Christine Boyle once again being OneCity’s sole representative at city hall.
The NPA, long a mainstay in Vancouver municipal politics, didn’t win any seats…and neither did more progressive parties such as Vision Vancouver and COPE.
This is a stark contrast to 2018, when Stewart won as an independent but clearly identified being on the political left since he was a former NDP MP. Council was split between the NPA, COPE, Greens and OneCity.
Sim’s and ABC’s victory means for the first time since 2008 a right of centre political group is in charge of Vancouver municipal government. Previously, Vision Vancouver held sway over city hall from 2008 to 2018.
Over the past four years, Vancouver council meetings were often dominated by delays, long drawn out motions and ‘gridlock’ as many critics claimed. Sim, who has never held elected office before this election, ran on fiscal responsibility, building more housing and hiring more police officers…getting an unprecedented endorsement from the Vancouver Police Association.
With a firm hand over City Council, the schools and Parks Board, ABC will have the votes necessary to push through an ambitious agenda so we will have to see how this rookie Mayor-elect Sim leads one of Canada’s biggest cities in the next four years.
Surrey turfs out controversy-plagued mayor, barely?
This is BC’s second largest city with over 614,000 residents and their mayor, Doug McCallum, has had to deal with the unfortunate political ‘double whammy’ of a scandal and a controversial policy that hindered his reelection prospects.
McCallum was charged with mischief after alleging someone ran over his foot during a protest at a strip mall, and he has been getting flack for wanting to introduce a municipal police force in Surrey to replace the RCMP.
He is an incumbent and that has built-in advantages but that didn’t stop four high profile challengers from stepping forward: Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, NDP MLA Jinny Sims, former Surrey MP and White Rock mayor Gordie Hogg and Councillor Brenda Locke.
Locke, the former BC Liberal MLA, was the one who squeaked out from the pack to edge out McCallum as Surrey’s new mayor. Her slate of Surrey Connect council candidates took 4 seats, while Surrey First (Hogg’s party) took 2 seats and McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition took only 2 as well.
The mayor-elect wasted little time taking over, beginning the steps to reverse the controversial municipal police force started by McCallum and saying he should pay for his own legal bills.
But it may not be over yet, as McCallum has not conceded as his campaign stated that he will seek a judicial recount since the margin between himself and Locke was less than 1,000 votes. The outgoing mayor also returned a city owned vehicle in such a state that a police investigation had to look into it.
Looks like the Surrey rollercoaster isn’t stopping yet.
More changes everywhere else
Here are the results from some of the other cities and towns across BC:
Abbotsford: Councillor Ross Siemens is the city’s new mayor, taking over from outgoing incumbent Henry Braun with 64% of the vote.
Burnaby: Former Liberal MLA Richard Lee has won a seat on Council under the One Burnaby municipal slate. The Burnaby Citizens Association won 6 of the 8 council seats.
Campbell River: Councillor Kermit Dahl won the vacant mayoral seat with 52% of the vote over former firefighter and two term councillor Larry Samson, former mayor Councillor Charlie Cornfield, Micheal Calhoun and former 2018 Toronto mayoral candidate Saron Gebresellassi.
Castlegar: Mayor Kirk Duff did not run again, and Councillor Maria McFaddin won the mayoral race by literally 5 votes over former mayor Lawrence Chernoff.
Cranbrook: Councillor Wayne Price defeated Mayor Lee Pratt, winning 61% of the vote over Pratt’s 39%.
Kamloops: After five years of relatively stable leadership under Ken Christian, voters here took a decisively different turn, electing Reid Hamer-Jackson over three sitting councillors and a former one, although with only 31% of the vote.
Hamer-Jackson, a local businessman, has lived in Kamloops since 1973 and this was first foray to elective office and campaigned as an ‘outsider’.
Kelowna: After eight years, voters turfed out Mayor Colin Basran and elected former Chamber of Commerce president Tom Dyas. Dyas won a landslide 61% of the vote over Basran’s 31%, a margin of over 10,000 votes.
Former Conservative MP Ron Cannan returned to the council chamber he once served, topping the polls for the top eight candidates elected to Council.
Langford: Mayor Stewart Young has served since 1993, but on election night 29 years later Young was ousted by Scott Peter Goodmanson, a competitive rower who owns a landscaping company.
Goodmanson identifed as an Independent, but the municipal slate Langford Now swept all but one council seat, ousting all the incumbents running under Young’s Community First Langford.
Langley City: Councillor Nathan Pachal defeated incumbent Val van den Broek, winning 64% of the vote. Van den Broek clashed with her colleagues during her term, leading to three investigations over her fundraising gala and a censure.
Langley Township: Out of the four candidates running, Councillor Eric Woodward was elected the new mayor over former councillor Michelle Sparrow and current Councillor Blair Whitmarsh. Former MLA and cabinet minister Rich Coleman finished in third place.
Maple Ridge: Former MP Dan Ruimy has ousted Mayor Mike Morden, winning 43% to Morden’s 30%. Former councillor Corisa Bell, retired nurse Darleen Bernard and entrepreneur Jacques Blackstone were also on the ballot.
Nanaimo: Former federal Green MP Paul Manly ha topped the polls in the race for city councillor, becoming a new councillor along with former journalist Hilary Eastmure and former Summerland mayor Janice Perrino.
New Westminster: The new mayor for the ‘Royal City’ will be Councillor Patrick Johnstone, who defeated Ken Armstrong and fellow Councillor Chuck Puchmayr, a former NDP MLA.
Prince George: Out of the six candidates running to succeed incumbent Lyn Hall, Hong Kong born Simon Yu was elected with 40% of the vote over Councillor Terri McConnachie and four other challengers.
Yu, who said he attended an Indian Day school with Indigenous students, promised to build affordable housing for the homeless.
Prince Rupert: Former mayor Herb Pond got his old job back, winning it with 51% of the vote. Current Mayor Lee Brain declined to run for another term.
Richmond: The mayor election outcome was not surprising, but the City Council looks like it’s going to be a diverse group with five parties represented. Former Solicitor General Kash Heed won a council seat for his Richmond RISE party.
Victoria: There may have been a bit of a rightward shift in cities like Vancouver and Surrey but in the provincial capital, progressive forces kept the mayor’s seat. Councillor Marianne Alto, seen as the candidate that would continue the policies of outgoing Mayor Lisa Helps, won with 55% of the vote.
Councillor Stephen Andrew, who mainly campaigned on getting back to basics and the efficiency of core services, was in second place and six other candidates were barely a factor. Victoria City Council sees a massive change, as literally every seat was filled by a newcomer; one former councillor was elected.
Incumbent Ben Isitt was the only previous member seeking reelection, of which he was not sucessful.
West Vancouver: Former mayor Mark Sager has returned to his old job, winning 52% of the vote over Mayor Mary-Ann Booth and Councillor Marcus Wong. In 2018, Sager lost to Booth by only 21 votes.
White Rock: White Rock: It ended up being a close three way race, with former councillor Megan Knight defeating Mayor Darryl Walker by 200 votes. Councillors Scott Kristjanson and Erika Johanson combined earned about 30% of the vote.
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