Incumbent mayors fall across B.C. in municipal vote

Incumbent mayors were ousted in communities across British Columbia in Saturday’s municipal elections, and a mayoral tie in the village of Lytton could lead to a judicial recount, according to the Vancouver Sun and CTV News.

The Vancouver Sun reported that Meghan Lahti in Port Moody, Dan Ruimy in Maple Ridge, Simon Yu in Prince George, Mark Sager in West Vancouver, Patrick Johnstone in New Westminster, Eric Woodward in the Township of Langley, Nathan Pachal in the City of Langley and George Harvie in Delta were among the mayors who lost their seats. Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson finished fourth, the newspaper reported. All results are preliminary and unofficial until each city’s chief election officer declares them.

Hugh Chan, a University of B.C. political analyst, described a broad anti-incumbent wave in comments to the Sun. He said voters are angry and may turn that anger on the provincial government.

In Delta, Melissa Granum won with 49 per cent of the vote, ahead of Dylan Kruger at 28 per cent and Harvie at 23 per cent, the Sun reported. In Port Coquitlam, Brad West won a third term with almost 90 per cent, according to the same report.

In Lytton, Denise O’Connor and Jennifer Thoss were tied at 45 votes each, the Sun reported. The newspaper said the tie will likely trigger a judicial recount.

In Midway, Doug McMynn won with 181 votes, the Sun reported. The McMynn family has held the mayor’s chair for 44 of the past 59 years, the newspaper said.

In the largest cities, Chan said Pete Fry won the Vancouver mayoralty over incumbent Ken Sim by more than 22,000 votes. Our earlier report on Vancouver’s mayoral result and council count has the preliminary city figures.

The Sun reported that Doug McCallum, 82, beat incumbent Brenda Locke in Surrey and that his Safe Surrey Coalition holds six council seats. CTV News projected the Surrey result early Sunday, as detailed in our Surrey story.

In Richmond, Rob Howard won over Alexa Loo and Kash Heed with the backing of former mayor Malcolm Brodie, the Sun reported. None of the five Richmond Forward council candidates won a seat on the eight-seat council, the newspaper said. A mayor has one vote, like a councillor, so Howard will need support from councillors of other parties. See our Richmond report for the count.

Results in Burnaby, Coquitlam, Langley and the North Shore are in our Burnaby and Coquitlam story. Official results are published by each municipality.

Via The Vancouver Sun and CP24’s live coverage of CTV News Vancouver.

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