The mayor of a province’s 18th largest municipality announcing he won’t run for re-election usually isn’t big news.
But Jonathan Coté’s decision to not seek a third term leading New Westminster could create an enormous hole in several areas of governance in Metro Vancouver.
First, he’s the influential chair of the TransLink Mayors’ Council, which oversees all TransLink policy. As such he has the delicate task of shepherding 21 municipalities, often with very different opinions on where transit funds should go, in the same direction.
Second, for those that believe municipalities are the place for innovative urban policy, New Westminster has been a model under Coté’s leadership, pushing forward on affordable housing and climate change policies in a way few cities in B.C. actually have.
Every New West councillor has supported his tenure, and he personally won last election with 73 per cent of the vote.
In other words, Coté has been a powerful politician, but he’s departing with very little of the public criticism that most politicians with his level of power tend to accumulate.
Part of that is New Westminster is, as mentioned, a much smaller city — it makes it harder for its political debates to get sucked into the broader ideological battles on social media the same way that Vancouver and Victoria often do.
However, part of it is that Coté is seen as someone that works hard to create relationships with all politicians, who tries to achieve what is plausible given the people at the table, who avoids saying things that could alienate others.
Those sorts of political traits aren’t particularly in vogue at the moment, something he alluded to in an interview with the New Westminster Record.
“I think my kind of consensus leadership style is not really in style these days,” he said.
“You are either an ally or an enemy in a lot of politics these days. Unfortunately, that’s not the best environment for me to thrive. I think that’s been a challenge for me.”
Whether you agree with Coté’s views on governing or not, it means there’s a period of uncertainty in New West politics for the first time in several years — and it could have spillover effects.
