New mayors elected in all corners of the province, as voters call for change
Leaders have four years to make good on big promises made during election campaign
British Columbians have voted for change as new mayors and council members were elected across the province on Saturday.
Housing, affordability, public safety and climate change all influenced the way voters cast their ballots this year, with B.C. facing inflation costs, a housing crisis and increasing rates of crime.
In some large municipalities, such as Kamloops, Victoria, Prince George and Abbotsford, incumbents chose not to run. But in other cities, including the province's two biggest, incumbents running for re-election lost their jobs to candidates making big claims and running on campaigns of change.
Whether or not they can make good on those promises will be determined over the next four years — and it's safe to say residents will be watching closely to ensure the people they supported are keeping their word.
Vancouver
CBC's decision desk has projected Ken Sim as the next mayor of Vancouver — with about 50 per cent of the vote — with the other half of votes cast divided up among 14 other candidates.
Sim has promised to hire 100 police officers and 100 mental health nurses to tackle crime in B.C.'s largest city. He's also said those new hires — which would cost more than $20 million a year — would not result in an increase in property taxes.
Sim has also promised to accelerate permitting, in order to address a lack of housing. He also promises to double the number of co-op housing units and has been supportive of the sometimes-controversial Vancouver and Broadway plans, which aim to increase density, particularly around transit stations.
Incumbent Kennedy Stewart and Sim also faced off in 2018, when the former won by a mere 957 votes.
In his concession speech, Stewart said it had been the "honour of my life" to serve as mayor of Vancouver.
Surrey
Brenda Locke has been elected mayor in Surrey, beating incumbent Doug McCallum by just 973 votes.
WATCH | Brenda Locke delivers victory speech:
The mayoral race in Surrey was dominated by promises on transit and public infrastructure, as well as the city's ongoing transition from RCMP to a municipal police force, which Locke promised to reverse if elected.
The city began its transition to the Surrey Police Service in 2018, when council, including Locke, unanimously approved a motion to replace the RCMP.
The Surrey Police Union has raised concerns about cost estimates for halting the transition, and say Surrey police officers might not interested in working for the RCMP. Former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal, who was chair of the Surrey police transition task force, says going back would be a complicated process; before the transition could be reversed, approval would be needed from the solicitor general.
"We have our work cut out for us," Locke told supporters on Saturday night.
WATCH | Locke speaks to CBC after declaring victory:
Victoria
When two-term Victoria mayor Lisa Helps announced she would not running for the job again this year, eight people, including sitting councillors Stephen Andrew and Marianne Alto, put their names in the hat to replace her.
Alto, a businesswoman with a background in law and science, won, with 56 per cent of the votes cast.
A key issue in the race was how candidates would vote on a controversial plan to rezone all single-family properties to allow for multi-family add-ons, something the next set of city leaders will decide early in their term. In her election platform, Alto said she'd "reconsider" the plan as it currently exists and might revise it.
Interior
A new mayor has been elected in Kelowna, where former Chamber of Commerce president Tom Dyas defeated incumbent Colin Basran, who was seeking a third term.
Dyas ran a campaign focused on safety, pointing to the fact the city had one of the highest crime rates in Canada in 2021, at almost 12,000 cases per 100,000 people.
Rather than hiring more police like other candidates in B.C. have suggested, he says his goal is to partner more existing officers with nurses, establish a community policing office at UBCO and create a citizens' patrol.
Kamloops also has a new mayor: nearly one-third of voters in Kamloops elected businessman Reid Hamer-Jackson, the only candidate with no prior municipal government experience.
The race opened up earlier this year when incumbent Ken Christian announced he would not be seeking office again. Five people announced plans to replace him, including four former councillors: Ray Dhaliwal, Dieter Dudy, Sadie Hunter and Arjun Singh.
Like most candidates, Hamer-Jackson made safety the top priority in his campaign, aiming to reduce harm reduction sites, citing people using drugs as the main reason for the city's safety concerns. Instead, his campaign promised more rehab and recovery facilities — something he'd have to work with the provincial government to achieve.
Further north, Simon Yu has been elected mayor of Prince George, making him the first person of colour to hold the position. Yu, an engineer, has promised to build emergency shelters to address the city's housing crisis.
Port Moody
Megan Lahti has been elected mayor in Port Moody, where a key issue was the development of a transit hub on a nine-hectare piece of land. Lahti, who was first elected to Port Moody's city council in 1996, defeated Steve Milani by fewer than a thousand votes.
Last month, Lahti told CBC that the underutilized piece of land near Moody Centre Station was an opportunity to consider both the climate crisis and the housing crisis in the community.
"What I'd like to have is affordable housing, seniors housing, family housing, jobs … so that people can live, work and play here, in Moody Centre," she said, adding that she wants infrastructure for alternative modes of transportation — such as ride-sharing, cycling, e-bikes and e-scooters — to make Port Moody less dependent on cars.
TransLink, which operates Metro Vancouver's transit system, has said it supports any development that is transit-focused.
Fraser Valley
It was all change for municipal leadership across the Fraser Valley, with new leaders in cities including Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Maple Ridge.
In the Township of Langley, Eric Woodward defeated former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Rich Coleman for the mayor's chair.
Woodward, a former councillor, captured 42 per cent of the vote, more than 3,000 votes ahead of Blair Whitmarsh in second place and Coleman in third.
Former two-term councillor Michelle Sparrow, who was defeated in 2018, finished in fourth place with 3,188 votes.
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