New faces in Saanich, Oak Bay as incumbent mayors defeated

While incumbent Lisa Helps won her second term in the mayor's chair in Victoria, there are no shortage of new faces on city councils across Vancouver Island.

In Saanich, incumbent mayor Richard Atwell was defeated by Coun. Fred Haynes by more than 4,000 votes, while city council saw four new names elected.

Haynes said he was looking forward to a "dynamic and excellent" new council and said it was time to look at doing things differently in the Capital Region's largest municipality.

Asked what message voters sent by electing him, Haynes responded: "Mayors need to do a better job, I would say, in paying attention to housing, paying attention to the environment and green space, looking at traffic and road safety."

He said there was a feeling that Saanich residents wanted more of a focus on creating new housing such as detached secondary suites and rental housing.

"That's where we pitched our campaign, to the families of Saanich, so that they can live and work and play here," said Haynes.

The atmosphere was more subdued at Atwell's campaign headquarters.

The outgoing mayor said as a true independent, he had a daunting challenge in his re-election bid.

"We came up against the political parties that support political candidates at the local level, and we had a hard time competing against that," he said.

Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen was soundly defeated by two-term councillor Kevin Murdoch, who won with 5,042 votes to Jensen's 2,138.

There will also be a new leader in Colwood, where incumbent mayor Carol Hamilton was defeated by seven-year city councillor Rob Martin.

In Sidney, incumbent mayor Steve Price also fell as Cliff Mcneil-Smith cruised to a landslide victory, getting nearly 80 per cent of the votes. He was also joined with four new faces on the six-person city council, indicating Sidney voters wanted to go in a different direction.

A three-horse race in Sooke turned into a two-horse race between incumbent Maja Tait and challenger Kevin Pearson. In the end, Tait won with 2,229 votes to Pearson's 1,623.

Duncan was poised to get a new mayor no matter what, with outgoing mayor Phil Kent giving up his seat. Michelle Staples squeaked out a victory with 494 votes to Martin Barker's 468, a difference of just 26 votes.

Up-island in Port Alberni, Mike Ruttan was ousted as Sharie Minions took 32 per cent of the vote to become the town's new mayor.

There are still some familiar faces who won't be going anywhere on Vancouver Island.

The safest bet in the Capital Region was likely Stew Young, who ended up cruising to a win with 82 per cent of the vote. It'll be Young's ninth term in office.

"It's a good result. The people have supported this council and their hard work," said Young. "I look forward to the next four years. We do a lot of great things in Langford by just kind of moving on, getting stuff done."

For more on NDP MLA Leonard Krog's mayoral win in Nanaimo, which could potentially affect the party's seat count in the legislature, click here.

For more on Lisa Helps' win, click here.