'Development was on the ballot': Vancouver Island candidates unseat incumbent mayors

As Dean Murdock dismantled his campaign signs Monday, he reflected on the excitement of his narrow victory over incumbent mayor, Fred Haynes. Murdock was vaulted into the Saanich mayor's chair by a margin of 152 votes.

“It was a very exciting night. We were on pins and needles all night waiting for the results,” said Murdock.

 His win was just one of several in the capital region that knocked off incumbents for mayor.

“It was the kind of night to make political pundits rethink their career choices,” said political scientist David Black, a professor at Royal Roads University.

Most surprising of all the defeats of incumbent mayors was Scott Goodmanson dethroning Stew Young in Langford. Young has been the leader of that community for nearly three decades.

“They’re in there and you have to respect that,” said Young on Monday, commenting on the surprising surge by Goodmanson as well as the slate of five new councillors.

“Thirty years is a long time to do what I’ve been doing,” he said.

“It’s been a great improvement from when I grew up in Langford, so they're getting handed a city that’s the number one city in British Columbia… I hope they don't screw it up,” he added with a laugh.

Elsewhere on the West Shore, Coun. Doug Kobayashi defeated one-term mayor Rob Martin in Colwood and Sid Tobias beat two-term mayor David Screech in View Royal.

Tobias says his victory was partly due to voters wanting more input into community development.

"View Royal is a town consisting of those neighbourhoods, and they want a greater say in what development looks like," he said Monday.

Black agrees that the pace and style of growth on the West Shore was a major factor in the election.

“Development was on the ballot, and the people said, 'slow it down,'” he said. “Really a call to recalibrate development, add social texture, add green spaces.”

In Victoria, there will be a whole new mayor and council although Marianne Alto, a four-term councillor, is a familiar face who is replacing Lisa Helps, who chose not to run again.

Elsewhere on Vancouver Island, Leonard Krog held on for a second term as mayor in Nanaimo, as did incumbent Bob Wells in Courtenay.

In Parksville, Doug O’Brien toppled incumbent Ed Mayne, and in Qualicum Beach, Teunis Westbroek unseated sitting mayor Brian Wiese.

As candidates clean up their campaign signs, victors are preparing to start work in November, when they'll be sworn in and voters will see whether they get the change they voted for.