The results are in: George Harvie will be Delta’s next mayor.
It was a huge win for the former city manager and his Achieving for Delta slate, taking a majority of seats on council (4 of 6) and a near-majority on school board (3 of 7).
Harvie’s speech after the election. https://t.co/vv7UyYLVRl
— Grace Kennedy (@gracekenn) October 21, 2018
Harvie won a hotly-contested race for mayor with 12,325 votes (39.56 per cent), beating out former Delta police chief Jim Cessford (10,533 votes, 33.8 per cent), Counc. Sylvia Bishop (7,353 votes, 23.6 per cent) and newcomers Moneca Kolvyn (553 votes, 1.77 per cent), Vytas Vaitkus (221 votes, 0.71 per cent) and Alex Megalos (174 votes, 0.56 per cent).
(Editor’s note: all results in this story are unofficial. The official results will be declared by Oct. 24.)
“When we had the advanced polls come in, they are usually the best indicators as far as the trend for voting,” Harvie said during his after-voting celebration at Tsawwassen Springs. “I was extremely pleased and very humbled by the support that the Delta community has shown in me, and I’m looking forward to getting to work as the next mayor for the City of Delta.”
Achieving for Delta’s Alicia Guichon lead the race for council most of the night, coming in over 2,000 votes ahead of her nearest competitor, running mate and current mayor Lois Jackson.
“I never thought that would happen, but I’ll take it, it’s amazing,” Guichon said after the results came in.
“We were just going to leave it with the voters. But our team worked so hard and it showed in the polls, and I’m thrilled.”
Coming in third with only a couple hundred votes less the Jackson was retired Delta Fire chief Dan Copeland, who also ran under the Achieving for Delta banner, followed by incumbent councillors Jeannie Kanakos and Bruce McDonald, both running on the Independents Working for You ticket.
Rounding out council will be newcomer Dylan Kruger, who also ran on Harvie’s Achieving for Delta slate.
RELATED: LIVE BLOG: Full election results for Delta
Counc. Robert Campbell was the only incumbent not re-elected to council, coming in tenth place with 8,371 votes (5.29 per cent) with one poll remaining.
Incumbent school trustee and current board chair Laura Dixon won the race for school trustee, narrowly beating fellow Independents Working for You incumbent Nick Kanakos.
Achieving for Delta newcomers Daniel Boisvert, Erica Beard and Jessie Dosanjh came in third, fourth, and seventh, respectively, while independent incumbent trustee Val Windsor came in fifth. Kids Matter candidate and incumbent trustee Bruce Reid rounded out the winners.
Incumbent trustees Dale Saip and Rhiannon Bennett were not successful in their bids for re-election, coming in tenth (8,235 votes, 5.4 per cent) and thirteenth (6,951 votes, 4.56 per cent), respectively.
In the end, 31,434 of 72,557 registered voters cast a ballot in the election, putting voter turnout at 43.32 per cent.
The first meeting of Delta’s new council will be on Nov. 5, according to the city’s council calendar. The past council is expected to meet one more time on Oct. 29. The first meeting of Delta’s new school board will be on Nov. 6.
Keep checking out the North Delta Reporter for more post-election coverage, including an analysis of this year’s results.
editor@northdeltareporter.com
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