Frankly Speaking

On a night of many surprising civic election results across the region, there were a few mild surprises in Langley as well. Peter Fassbender failed in his attempt to become Langley City mayor again. While many expected a closer race, incumbent councillor Val van den Broek won the mayor’s chair by a healthy margin. She beat the former three-term mayor and one-term MLA by 206 votes. Also surprising in the City was the defeat of longtime councillor Jack Arnold, who has been a fixture on council for more than two decades. He finished 11 th out of the 16 candidates seeking election to the six councillors’ seats. Former councillors Rosemary Wallace and Teri James join the other four incumbents to form the next council. A third surprise was the second defeat in a row for former school trustee Candy Ashdown. She finished third out of five candidates for the two Langley City positions on the board of education. Newcomer Tony Ward topped the polls, and incumbent trustee Shelley Cobur...

Frank Bucholtz photo This instruction to voters was posted all over Sierra Leone (in West Africa), as voters there prepared to vote in a presidential runoff election in March. As noted near the bottom of the poster, the Government of Canada (i.e. Canadian taxpayers)  helped to support the voter education process. The runoff election went very smoothly. If democracy can be that resilient and powerful in Sierra Leone, it most certainly can be the same in B.C. The shouting is almost over. The signs, somewhat reduced in number, will be coming down. Surrey and White Rock voters will elect new councils and a new Surrey Board of Education on Saturday. The same process will take place in Delta, Langley City, Langley Township and municipalities across B.C. It has been a unique civic election campaign. Here in the South Fraser region, there is the very unusual prospect of electing four new mayors. Longtime Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, White Rock...

Frank Bucholtz photo Fort Langley Community Improvement Society, which operates the historic Fort Langley Community Hall, hosted a candidate meeting for all 32 candidates running in Langley Township on Thursday. Martina Boyd was the moderator, while Andy Schildhorn and many other volunteers made sure it ran smoothly. There was a certain level of tension in the air.Thursday’s Fort Langley all-candidates meeting for the 25 candidates for Langley Township council was getting underway. Every candidate was seated, ready to go – except for the eight incumbent members of council. None of them were in the room. The meeting started, with moderator Martina Boyd explaining the ground rules to the candidates. There were more than 200 people packed into Fort Langley community hall. Many were standing. Just as she was about to draw for speaking order, the incumbents began to arrive. They had all been at another event at nearby Redwoods Golf Course. As luck would have it, the first nam...

Peter Fassbender's decision to run again for mayor of Langley City is one of the more noteworthy aspects of the municipal election campaigns in the two Langleys, thus far. This blog post has been updated to reflect the final list of candidates, after nominations closed on Friday. The upcoming municipal election in the two Langleys will be interesting, but not as lively as many other contests in the region. One reason is that there is not really much of a contest for mayor in Langley Township. Incumbent Jack Froese has two challengers, but neither (Alex Joehl and Anna Remenik) is well-known and it is unlikely he will get less than 70 per cent of the vote (assuming no other challengers come forward by Friday, the close of nominations). Seven of the eight councillors are running for re-election. They are Petrina Arnason, Michelle Sparrow, Blair Whitmarsh, Angie Quaale, Bob Long, David Davis and Kim Richter. Only Charlie Fox is retiring. As two of the challengers are ...