Many familiar faces returning to their positions
By Bex Peterson, Editor-in-Chief
The municipal election yielded very little in the way of significant changes for the city councils of New Westminster and Coquitlam.
In New West, Jonathan Cote was re-elected mayor by a wide margin, gaining just under 73 percent of the total mayoral votes. He was joined by fellow incumbents to the position of city councillor Patrick Johnstone, Mary Trentadue, Jaimie McEvoy, and Chuck Puchmayr. Nadine Nakagawa and Chinu Das are newcomers to the Council; notably, Nakagawa was the highest-voted candidate.
In Coquitlam, Richard Stewart was re-elected mayor with nearly 70 percent of the vote. Incumbents Craig Hodge, Chris Wilson, Teri Towner, Bonita Zarrillo, Brent Asmundson, and Dennis Marsden returned to the council, leaving two spots open for newcomers Trish Mandewo and Steve Kim.
There was a bit of a shake-up in terms of school board positions, especially in New Westminster. In New West, candidates Anita Ansari, Dee Beattie, Gurveen Dhaliwal, Mark Gifford, Danielle Connelly, and incumbent Mary Lalji were elected to the school board. Connelly was the only member of the New Westminster Progressives’ slate elected to office.
In the Tri-Cities, the school board saw a few new faces: Jennifer Blather and Craig Woods in Coquitlam, Christine Pollock in Port Coquitlam. Incumbent trustees Carol Cahoon, Barb Hobson, Keith Watkins, Lisa Park, and Michael Thomas returned to the SD43 board of education.
According to the Vancouver Sun, anti-SOGI school board candidates were largely disregarded by Lower Mainland voters, with only a quarter of them elected to office.
“Candidates in Surrey, Delta, New Westminster, North Vancouver and Coquitlam who had been recommended [for anti-SOGI voters] by bcsogi.ca all lost,” the Vancouver Sun reported.
