Gregor Robertson was re-elected for a third term as mayor of Vancouver as several B.C. communities voted in new mayors in civic elections across the province last night.
Linda Hepner succeeded longtime ally Dianne Watts as Surrey mayor while incumbents were defeated in Victoria, Kelowna, Abbotsford, New Westminster and Nanaimo.
Robertson hangs on for third term
Robertson won a third term after a contentious campaign against NPA candidate Kirk LaPointe.
The mayor headed into election season as an early favourite, but LaPointe later closed within 5 percentage points of Robertson in polls leading up to election day. NPA leaders were hopeful that reports of high voter turnout were a sign that many Vancouverites were looking for a change at City Hall, but Robertson managed to win by more than 10,000 votes.
The NPA made some inroads, winning four of seven park commissioner seats. Vision and the NPA each won four school board seats with the Greens winning one.
If he completes his third term, Robertson will be the longest, continuously serving mayor in Vancouver history.
Dominant win for Surrey First
In what was expected to be a close three-way race, Surrey First candidate Linda Hepner was elected mayor of Surrey, handily beating former Surrey mayor Doug McCallum and councillor Barinder Rasode. Hepner’s win caps a big night for Surrey First as their candidates won all eight city council seats and six school trustee spots.
Incumbent losses
With any election, there are some changes. Based on unofficial results, B.C’s capital will have a new mayor as Victoria city councillor Lisa Helps defeated two-term mayor Dean Fortin. Helps, who was first elected to council last election, defeated Fortin by 89 votes, 9200 to 9111, in a race considered tight the entire election.
In neighbouring Saanich, Richard Atwell unseated incumbent Frank Leonard, who led the municipality for 18 years, by just over 1,000 votes. In Nanaimo councillor Bill McKay beat out mayor Bill Holdom.
Abbotsford will have a new mayor as Henry Braun narrowly defeated Bruce Banman. Banman earned a surprise win over incumbent mayor George Peary in the 2011 mayoral election, running on a platform of fiscal responsibility.
After 12 years, Wayne Wright’s reign in New Westminster has come to an end. Jonathan X. Cote, a city councillor since 2005, was elected mayor on Saturday, defeating four-term mayor Wright and two other challengers.
In Mission, Randy Hawes defeated mayor Ted Adlem. Hawes had been the mayor of Mission for three terms before serving in provincial politics for more than a decade. Earlier this week, a municipal defamation case involving alleged blackmailing of the mayor of Mission with scandalous sex claims was revealed in court documents filed by Adlem, who finished in third place in Saturday’s election.
Incumbents re-elected in Burnaby, Richmond
Burnaby’s long-time Mayor Derek Corrigan has kept his seat in the 2014 civic election with a dominant win that saw him garner more than 68 per cent of the vote. His closest opponent, Daren Hancott, managed just 21 per cent of the vote.
Richmond will have the same mayor for the next four years as Malcolm Brodie ran away with nearly 70 per cent of the vote. The city has had only three mayors since 1974.
Other B.C. civic election results:
- In Kelowna, former journalist Colin Basran defeated Sharon Shepherd to replace departing mayor Water Gray
- Darrell Mussatto won a fourth term as mayor of the City of North Vancouver
- All three mayors in the Tri-Cities–Mike Clay in Port Moody, Richard Stewart in Coquitlam and Greg Moore in Port Coquitlmam–were re-elected
- Incumbent Mayor Jack Froese was re-elected in the Township of Langley
- In Prince George, Coun. Lyn Hall has beat out former councillor Don Zurowski to replace outgoing Mayor Shari Green
- In what was likely B.C.’s closest mayoral race, Mitch Campsall was re-elected mayor of 100 Mile House, defeating Maureen Pinkney by a margin of just 10 votes.
-with files from Amy Judd and Justin McElroy and Canadian Press
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