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EDITORIAL: Change of office

With the smoke beginning to clear and election results soon to be made official, we are getting a glimpse of what the North Shore is to become in the years ahead.
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With the smoke beginning to clear and election results soon to be made official, we are getting a glimpse of what the North Shore is to become in the years ahead.

The District of West Vancouver has elected a council and mayor with an appetite for change.

The District of North Vancouver has seen the biggest shift in the balance of power where candidates with more conservative platforms essentially ran the table.

In the City of North Vancouver, mayor-elect Linda Buchanan certainly benefited from vote splitting with three high-profile opponents all running on a similar message. But when you look at the rest of council, there is no question that urbanism has a mandate in the city.

We have been pleased to see this peaceful transfer of power oiled, for the most part, by clean and positive campaigns.

And we commend as well the roughly 35 per cent of North Shore residents who found their way to a ballot box. In reality, it is a pitifully low number but it’s a huge increase from the last election.

Surely there are a handful of West Vancouver folks who couldn’t shut off Netflix for an hour now wishing they had. The mayoral race there was decided by just 21 votes, as if we needed any more reminders that every vote counts.

With the well of democracy refreshed, we are eager to see all our new councils sworn in on Nov. 5.

Whether you campaigned on bringing about change or making things more like they used to be, there is a lot of work to be done and those bylaws aren’t going to pass themselves.

What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.