Many mayors packing their bags after a host of defeats on municipal election day
The voters have spoken - and that means many mayors are packing their bags.
In the areas I was paying attention to (Oct. 13 blog post), mayors in Surrey, White Rock and Langley City all lost their jobs.
Meanwhile, in Langley Township Councillor Eric Woodward is the new mayor, and five members of his Contract With Langley slate will hold a majority on council. Former Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA Rich Coleman, who easily won his provincial seat in six elections, finished a distant third and his Elevate Langley slate did not elect anyone to council.
Delta Mayor George Harvie easily won and his Achieving For Delta slate holds every seat on council. In Mission, incumbent Mayor Paul Horn easily beat two challengers.
It was all part of a wider trend across the province that saw 37 incumbent mayors lose their seats, and many more councillors fall by the wayside as well. In cities where there has been more political stability, incumbents had an easier time of it.
In Langley Township, Coun. Petrina Arnason lost. In Surrey, Councillors Allison Patton and Laurie Guerra lost. In Langley City, longtime Coun. Gayle Martin and Coun. Rudy Storteboom lost. No councillors lost in Mission or Delta, but Coun. Anthony Manning lost in White Rock.
The overall mood among voters in B.C. could be described as cranky. Both federal and provincial parties need to be aware of that. The immediate post-pandemic trend of re-electing governments on the basis of their pandemic performance no longer holds true.
Surrey - Policing the first issue on new mayor’s plate
Brenda Locke is Surrey’s new mayor, beating out incumbent Doug McCallum by less than 1,000 votes. As a result she says the transition to the new Surrey Police Service will be halted - something she was crystal clear about during the campaign. McCallum had served one term, after coming back in 2018 following 13 years in the political wilderness. He was mayor from 1996-2005, before being defeated by Dianne Watts.
Whether the province, which approved the transition, will go along with her plans to keep the RCMP and get rid of SPS remains to be seen. In some ways, it is a situation of Solicitor General Mike Farnworth’s own making. It was clear when it approved the transition that there had been no real consultation with citizens. Had the province ordered a referendum first, it would not be in this situation.
Former White Rock mayor Gordie Hogg polled a strong third in Surrey, and by splitting the vote (along with MLA Jinny Sims and MP Sukh Dhaliwal), ensured that Locke had enough votes to beat McCallum.
The percentage share of the votes was significant. McCallum had 27.3 per cent of the votes to Locke’s 28.1 per cent, with Hogg gathering 21 per cent. Sims and Dhaliwal managed to get just over 20 per cent between them.
Voters made it clear that incumbent politicians from other elected bodies, who do not resign their seats to run, cannot be taken seriously. As Watts pointed out on an election night TV broadcast, running for office in the entire city is very different from running in one portion of it.
Voter turnout in Surrey was up, to just under 35 per cent. It was just under 33 per cent in 2018. Given that there were 56 on the ballot for councillor, that is commendable. To improve voter turnout, a ward system needs to be looked at. This would reduce the size of the individual ballot, and allow candidates to campaign far more effectively.
The new Surrey council will have two Safe Surrey Coalition incumbents, Doug Elford and Mandeep Nagra, along with four new councillors from Locke’s Surrey Connect group (Harry Bains, Gordon Hepner, Rob Stutt and Pardeep Kooner), and incumbent Linda Annis and newcomer Mike Bose for Surrey First.
In addition to the policing issue, which will consume a lot of the new Surrey council’s time and effort at first, there are many other issues. Homelessness, lack of provincial funds for expansion of critical medical and child care facilities, development approvals, housing costs, and general affordability are just some of those issues.
If David Eby becomes the new premier, he has vowed to drastically change a number of entrenched policies on housing and take away some municipal powers if local councils prove recalcitrant. There may be a lot of fireworks over those changes.
The new Surrey Board of Education is exactly the same as the old one, with six incumbents (Terry Allen, Laurie Larsen, Garry Thind, Sean Wilson, Bob Holmes and Gary Tymoschuk) elected in Surrey and incumbent Laurae McNally winning in White Rock by acclamation.
White Rock - Megan Knight wins mayor's seat by coming up the middle
White Rock citizens also elected a new mayor. One-term mayor Darryl Walker was nowhere nearly as controversial as McCallum, but he lost because of a four-way split that allowed Megan Knight to win. She had 190 more votes than he managed. The other two candidates (Erika Johanson and Scott Kristjanson) were former members of Walker’s Democracy Direct slate, which fell apart before the election. Both finished much farther behind.
Walker actually lost just 72 votes from his 2018 total, when there were six candidates for mayor. Knight, who placed seventh in the run for council in 2018, gained 245 votes over her 2018 total, in her run for mayor. Voter turnout was down seven per cent, to 30.7 per cent.
While incumbent Manning lost his council seat, incumbents Christopher Trevelyan (the last former Democracy Direct elected official still standing) and Dave Chesney held their seats. Trevelyan topped the polls.
Former councillor Bill Lawrence won a seat, along with newcomers Ernie Klassen, Elaine Cheung and Michele Partridge.
Affordability, development and high-rises are the topics that council will be spending a lot of time on. Many White Rock residents who rent their homes are concerned about losing them. Eby’s housing policies will be closely scrutinized by council and residents.
Langley Township - Slate back in charge after a 23-year absence
The last time a slate won control of Langley Township council was in 1996, and the many controversies that dogged Langley Leadership Team back then caused Langley Township residents to disdain them in the next election - until now.
Woodward put together Contract With Langley after experiencing dissatisfaction with the way council has treated some of his proposals for change over the past four years. He was first elected to council in 2018. He has also had a long-running dispute over the way some of his proposals for Fort Langley, where he or his foundation own much of the commercial land, have been handled by the Township.
Five of the six Contract With Langley slate candidates were elected, including longtime Coun. Steve Ferguson, who has never been part of a slate before. Other slate members who were elected were Barb Martens, Tim Baillie, Misty Van Popta and Rob Rindt.
Two incumbents were re-elected - Margaret Kunst and Kim Richter. Newcomer Michael Pratt was also elected.
Incumbent councillor Blair Whitmarsh placed second in the race for mayor, with Coleman in third and former councillor Michele Sparrow fourth. The Township has yet to elect a female mayor.
The three incumbents will provide some stability and institutional knowledge, but it will be a steep learning curve for the five newcomers. Affordability, housing, and the need for municipal services to keep up with record growth - particularly in Willoughby - will be top of mind issues, as will the province’s housing policy changes.
It will be interesting to see how Township voters adjust to having a slate control council. I suspect Contract With Langley will be judged by its results.
Contract With Langley also elected three of the five school trustees in the Township - Holly Dickinson, Joel Neufeld and Sarb Rai. Incumbents Charlie Fox and Marnie Wilson were re-elected. Incumbents Suzanne Perrault and Rod Ross (whose tenure goes back over 30 years) were defeated.
The two trustees for Langley City won by acclamation - incumbent Tony Ward and former trustee Candy Ashdown.
In an interesting side note, longtime Township councillor Bob Long, who held office for 23 years, did not run again because he has moved to Princeton. He ran for office there, but was unsuccessful.
Langley City - Youthful urban advocate Nathan Pachal is the new mayor
Incumbent councillor Nathan Pachal easily won as mayor in Langley City, defeating incumbent mayor Val van de Broek. She had been locked into a battle with council, which voted to censure her earlier this year.
Pachal is a longtime advocate of improved urban services for Langley City, from the time he moved here 20 years ago. He was first involved in pushing for improved transit, and since winning a council seat in a byelection, has broadened his concerns to sidewalks, streets, community safety, affordability and a variety of choices in housing. He regularly blogs about council actions and makes a conscientious effort to keep citizens informed.
He is definitely in tune with the trends in local government in the Lower Mainland and, as he is under 40, speaks for a generation which isn’t always heard by decision-makers.
I expect he will continue to keep residents fully informed. He is excited about SkyTrain coming to Langley City (who would have believed it, even 10 years ago?) and will be a good advocate for ensuring that it fully serves the needs of both City and Township residents.
Incumbent councillors Paul Albrecht, Rosemary Wallace and Teri James were all re-elected. As noted above, Martin and Storteboom lost their council seats. Martin’s tenure on council goes back to the last century. She has often represented Langley City at the regional level and is very well-known in municipal circles.
Newly elected to council are Mike Solyom, Leith White and Delaney Mack. Solyom and Mack are also part of the generational shift, and bring a focus on specific issues that are important in the City to the council table.
The new council will likely be more in tune with the housing policy changes Eby has outlined than many others, and Langley City already has an enviable reputation for turning out permits and approvals in a very short time frame.
Mission - Continuity was the theme
Incumbent mayor Paul Horn has easily won re-election over two challengers, and all five incumbent councillors also won. Topping the polls, and getting considerably more votes than Horn managed, was youthful incumbent Jag Gill, who is 27. I noticed Gill signs on many lawns when we were in Mission on Thursday - far more than those of any other candidate.
Ken Herar, Danny Plecas, Carol Hamilton and Mark Davies all won re-election. Newly elected to council is Angel Elias.
Mission is attracting a lot of interest from developers, as housing remains slightly lower-priced than in cities closer to Vancouver. It is still unaffordable for many people to own a home there, though.
The new council will have to tackle affordability, homelessness, social housing and improved services for residents in densely-populated areas like Cedar Valley. One issue where recent headway has been made is that of commercial traffic on First Avenue, the town’s main street which is also part of the Lougheed Highway. Getting truck traffic off that road would be a real boost to downtown businesses and would encourage more residents to shop in the downtown area. Mission’s downtown has the potential to develop to a much higher density, and with West Coast Express already there, that could attract people who work further afield but do not want to commute by car.
Mission Board of Education looks much the same as it did before, with trustees Tracy Loffler and Randy Cairns winning re-election in Mission, and trustee Shelley Carter winning the one seat in rural areas east of Mission by acclamation. They will be joined by newcomers Jash Bains and Linda Hamel, who were elected to the other two Mission seats on the board.
Delta - Achieving For Delta slate in full control
Incumbent mayor George Harvie won a six-way battle for mayor in 2018 against two high-profile contenders, then-councillor Sylvia Bishop and former police chief Jim Cessford. Three others ran but only obtained a small number of votes.
Harvie gained just over 40 per cent of the vote in 2018. In 2022, he won 77 per cent of the vote.
Voter turnout this year was just under 30 per cent, compared with 43 per cent in 2018.
This time around, he took his six Achieving For Delta slate-mates, a mixture of incumbents and newcomers, to victory as well. Winning council seats were incumbents Alicia Guichon and Dylan Kruger, school trustees Daniel Boisvert and Jessie Dosanjh, who successfully made the transition to council, and newcomers Rod Binder and Jennifer Johal.
Achieving For Delta candidates also won six of the seven seats on the board of education. They are incumbents Val Windsor and Erica Beard, and newcomers Ammen Dhillon, Masaka Gooch, Nimmi Daula and Joe Muego. The lone incumbent to win was Nick Kanakos, who is also the only non-Achieving For Delta candidate to win.
Delta will have to address the housing and affordability issues that are so important, and council will be paying close attention to provincial changes to housing policy.
Final thought - Vancouver finally elects a Chinese-Canadian mayor
Historically, B.C. was one of the most racist provinces in Canada. There were race riots, potential immigrants sent back to India after being refused the right to get off a ship in Vancouver harbour, race-motivated killings, strikes against non-Caucasian workers being employed and, of course, the forced removal of Japanese-Canadians from the coast during the Second World War and the sale of almost all their possessions at five cents on the dollar by the federal government.
(I am currently reading Barry Broadfoot's book "Years of Sorrow, Years of Shame" about this sad event in Canadian history. I picked it up in Kaslo, one of the Kootenay towns that Japanese-Canadians were sent to.)
Vancouver was the epicentre of this racism, as the province's largest city. Much of the racism was whipped up by Vancouver politicians elected at all three levels of government, and from all political perspectives ranging from far-left to far-right, and everything in between. Elected officials willing to speak out against such policies were both brave and rare.
Thus it was heartwarming to see Ken Sim, the first Chinese-Canadian ever elected mayor of Vancouver, refer in detail on Saturday night to the significance of his win. He singled out by name past members of the Chinese-Canadian community who have been elected, from all political stripes.
Vancouver voters have taken one more step towards helping expunge some of the remnants of racism, which has unfortunately become more obvious with the increasing number of hate crimes during the pandemic.
Maybe one day, the voters of Vancouver will take another step forward and actually elect a woman as mayor.
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