Incumbent Henry Braun has been re-elected as the mayor of Abbotsford beating out candidates Eric Nyvall, Trevor Eros, Moe Gill, Gerda Peachey and Nadine Snow.
Braun won with 18,732 votes, according to CivicInfo B.C.
His victory marks the first time Abbotsford has voted to re-elect a sitting mayor following three consecutive single-term mayors. Braun defeated previous mayor Bruce Banman by 577 votes in 2014.
Incumbent councillors Patricia Ross, Les Barkman, Dave Loewen, Kelly Chahal, Sandy Blue, Brenda Falk and Ross Siemens were all re-elected. Newcomer Bruce Banman was also elected Saturday night.
Below is the full list of mayoral and councillor candidates.
Candidates
Mayor
Henry Braun (incumbent)
Eric Nyvall
Trevor Eros
Moe Gill
Gerda Peachey
Nadine Snow
Council
Patricia Ross (incumbent)
Jas Anand
Bruce Banman
Les Barkman (incumbent)
Sandy Blue (incumbent)
Kelly Chahal (incumbent)
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Vince Dimanno
Brenda Falk (incumbent)
Aird Flavelle
Manocha Harry
Harvey Jongsma
Tilley Lawrence
Dave Loewen
Paul Redekopp
Josh Reynolds
Dave Sidhu
Ross Siemens (incumbent)
Dao Tran
Boundary
Located in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, Abbotsford sits south of the Fraser River, across from communities including Mission and Hatzic. Langley Township is its neighbour to the west, Chilliwack its neighbour to the east. Abbotsford shares a southern border with the United States; it is where the Sumas border crossing is located.
Population (2016)
141,397
History
Some of the earliest residents of the Abbotsford region settled around the Fraser River. Initially hunter-gatherers, they ended up staying close to the river as they didn’t have to venture far for shelter or food.
Early peoples who lived in the Fraser Valley were known as the Sto:lo, or the “People of the River.” Smallpox would wipe out two-thirds of the Sto:lo in 1782, the very same year they would first make contact with Europeans. Sto:lo would subsequently be displaced from their lands and moved to reserves.
Then, news that gold was discovered in the Fraser River brought a rush to Sto:lo land in 1858.
That same year, Britain’s Royal Engineers were invited to settle in the area. One of them, John Cunningham Maclure, looked upon the Matsqui Prairie and said, “this is the promised land.”
With a right of way granted to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), the stage was set to establish a town centre. Maclure suggested that the place be named after his friend Harry Abbott, western superintendent of the CPR.
Thus was born the Village of Abbotsford. The village would join with the District of Sumas to create the District of Abbotsford in 1971.
Then, in 1995, it joined with the District of Matsqui to become the City of Abbotsford.
Median total income of couple economic families with children (2015)/B.C. median
$105,490/$111,736
Crime Severity Index (2016) – municipal/B.C.
86.34 (-0.68)/93.63 (-0.71)
Violent Crime Severity Index (2016) – municipal/B.C.
83.37 (-1.08)/74.86 (-9.81)
Political representation
Federal
Ed Fast (Conservative) — Abbotsford
Jati Sidhu (Liberal) — Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon
Provincial
Mike de Jong (BC Liberal) — Abbotsford West
Simon Gibson (BC Liberal) — Abbotsford-Mission
Darryl Plecas (Independent) — Abbotsford South
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