THE mayoralty races drove voters to the polls in North Vancouver, but West Vancouver saw the lowest turnout in more than 30 years in Saturday's election.
Just 23.7 per cent of eligible voters bothered to cast a ballot for council in West Vancouver, where mayor-elect Michael Smith was acclaimed without a vote. That was down from 32.56 per cent in 2008 and a high of nearly 56 per cent in 1988. That's the lowest turnout since the 1980 election, the last for which there are statistics, when all mayor and council spots were filled by acclamation.
The number of voters climbed in both the district and city of North Vancouver, however, to 21 per cent in the district and 21.6 per cent in the city. In 2008, those two races recorded 16.5 per cent and 17.6 per cent turnout respectively.
District mayor Richard Walton said the turnout was encouraging, but still too low, suggesting next year the district could experiment with Internet voting or polling stations that go to seniors' residences ahead of election day. His focus over the next three years, however, would be on implementing the official community plan, and said voters sent a strong message of support in re-electing all incumbents.
"You know how close this council has worked together as a team and I'm pleased that the community voted us back in as a team," he said.
Michael Evison, who was defeated in this election after serving a single term on West Vancouver council, said he would enjoy semi-retirement but stay involved in local politics, in particular with regards to more housing diversity, the district's relationship with the Squamish Nation and Ambleside Now.
"Personally I'm disappointed," said Evison, who finished seventh, noting that all the incumbents aside from Bill Soprovich received fewer votes than the three newcomers elected in West Vancouver. "I'm not quite sure what the message is there."
In the City of North Vancouver, Coun. Bob Fearnley was the only incumbent to lose his seat, finishing eighth and ending a five election, 15-year council tenure.
"I was a little surprised at my first reaction when I saw I hadn't made it," Fearnley said. "I was relieved. I don't know why, but I felt relieved.
"I was getting really fed up with things," he said. "Of course I wanted to continue contributing, that goes without saying. But I really was getting fed up with all the nonsense and the stuff that goes on with politics. And I was getting rather tired of politicians too."
City Mayor Darrell Mussatto said he was excited to work with two new councillors, former school trustee Linda Buchanan and former district mayor Don Bell, and credited the city's civic engagement task force with raising voter turnout.
"I think that helped increase the turnout, and . . . having a mayor's race helped as well," he said.
UNOFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS
DISTRICT OF NORTH VANCOUVER
*incumbents
elected in bold
Votes %age of vote
Mayor:
Richard Walton: * 9,897 81.54%
Margie Goodman 2,241 18.46%
Councillor:
Robin Hicks: * 7,565 12.28%
Mike Little: * 7,401 12.01%
Doug MacKay-Dunn: * 7,197 11.68%
Lisa Muri: * 7,173 11.64%
Roger Bassam: * 6,034 9.79%
Alan Nixon: * 5,780 9.38%
Holly Back: 5,230 8.49% Ron Sostad 272 0.8%
John Gilmour: 4,931 8.00% Carson Reed Polly 250 0.7%
Kevin Macauley: 4,259 6.91% Behgam Rabbani 239 0.7%
Wendy Qureshi: 3,111 5.05%
Austin Park: 1,500 2.43% School trustee:
Howard Dahl: 1,426 2.31% Susan Skinner * 3123 21.7%
Lisa Bayne 2512 17.5%
School trustee: Christie Sacré 2180 15.2%
Franci Stratton: * 7,420 22.63% Chris Dorais 2177 15.1%
Barry Forward: * 7,273 22.18% Mary Tasi * 1931 13.4%
Cyndi Gerlach: 7,049 21.50% John Harvey 1221 8.5%
Mike Mcgraw: 5,954 18.16% Ian T. Young 1239 8.6%
Norm Binion: 5,090 15.52% Turnout: 21.6%
Turnout: 21%
CITY OF NORTH VANCOUVER
*incumbents
elected in bold
Votes %age of vote
Mayor:
Darrell Mussatto * 5037 73.8%
Ron Polly 758 11.1%
George Pringle 546 8.0%
Chris J. Nichols 487 7.1%
Councillor:
Don Bell 3901 11.0%
Linda Buchanan 3790 10.7%
Craig Keating * 3642 10.3%
Rod Clark * 3106 8.8%
Pam Bookham 2986 8.4%
Guy Heywood * 2792 7.9%
Cheryl Leia 2626 7.4%
Bob Fearnley 2397 6.8%
Juliana Buitenhuis 1885 5.3%
Amanda Nichol 1723 4.9%
Yashar Khalighi 1454 4.1%
Elizabeth Fodor 950 2.7%
D.W. (Bill) Duncan 805 2.3%
Glen Miller 779 2.2%
Joe Heilman 754 2.1%
Michael Charrois 696 2.0%
John Hutchinson 379 1.1%
DISTRICT OF WEST VANCOUVER
*incumbents
elected in bold
Votes %age of vote
Mayor:
Michael Smith acclaimed
Councillor:
Bill Soprovich: * 4,543 12.27%
Mary-Ann Booth: 4,247 11.47%
Craig Cameron 4,206 11.36%
Nora Gambioli: 4,148 11.20%
Trish Panz: * 3,922 10.59%
Michael Lewis: * 3,786 10.22%
Michael Evison: * 3,480 9.40%
Vivian Vaughan: 2,892 7.81%
Carolanne Reynolds: 1,889 5.10%
Gregg Henderson: 1,587 4.29%
David Jones: 1,358 3.67%
Max Nikpay: 711 1.92%
Damian Kettlewell 261 0.71%
School trustee:
Jane Kellett * 5,419 20.11%
Carolyn Broady 5,052 18.74%
Cindy Dekker * 4,883 18.12%
Dave Stevenson * 4,852 18.00%
Reema Faris 3,735 13.86%
Christine Banham 3,012 11.18%
Turnout: 23.73%
