Chuck Puchmayr’s decades-long political career has come to an end.
Puchmayr, who has served seven terms on city council after first being elected in 1996 and a served a term as New Westminster’s MLA, placed third in the Oct. 15 race to become New Westminster’s next mayor. When it became clear Patrick Johnstone would emerge as the winner, Puchmayr went to council chambers, where Johnstone watched results roll in with family, to congratulate Johnstone on his win.
“It's almost like a mixed emotion. I feel bad for all the people that helped me – I feel bad for them, but I don't feel bad for me,” he told the Record. “I feel that at least I got a chance to run. That's the important part. That's the way I want to leave. If I'm going to leave, I want to leave fighting, not beaten up.”
Preliminary results showed that Puchmayr received 3,912 votes, compared to Community First mayoral candidate Patrick Johnstone’s 6,676 votes and New West Progressives candidate Ken Armstrong’s 5,227 votes.
While Puchmayr had been endorsed by the New Westminster and District Labour Council in some previous elections, he didn’t receive its endorsement for this election. He ran as an independent, having ran with Team Cote in 2018 (all of the other members of Team Cote seeking re-election ran with the Community First New West party in 2022).
Puchmayr said the results reflect the difficulty independents have in going up against organized slates of candidates.
“It shows that certainly teams are big, like the ground game is big. They had 10 to 14 times the ground game that I did, because I'm the candidate – they had numerous candidates to take that message to the door. So that's really important,” he said. “You know, the ground game is so important, and they did well with the ground game. It was hard to overcome.”
Puchmayr said city council will have a “big job” ahead of it, given the tough economic times citizens are facing.
“Inflation is rampant. Food costs, fuel cost, heating costs, housing costs, you know, are pretty well out of control. Interest rates. There are seniors that have mortgages, they've had second mortgages that are coming up for renewal, or double the interest rates. There's some really, really tough times,” he said. “So what I would say to them is, look really closely at your wishlist, and be cognizant that whatever you do is going to impact your residents and it's going to impact small business five times. So I want them to be cautious and I want them to be frugal, and I want them to understand that we're in a tough economic time here. And it requires some strong leadership.”
While he’ll continue to be involved in community endeavours, Puchmayr said he’s officially retiring from politics.
