The campaign to fill the vacant seat on the New Westminster school board officially gets underway this week.
New West voters will go to the polls on Feb. 3 to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of former trustee Dee Beattie. The chief election officer reports that four declared candidates will run in the 2024 school trustee byelection: Jalen Bachra (Community First New Westminster); Kathleen Carlsen (New West Progressives); Alejandro Diaz; and Shawn Sorensen.
The campaign period runs from Saturday, Jan. 6 until Saturday, Feb. 3. Under city bylaws, campaign signs can be set up after 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 8. (Vehicle signs, including car wraps, are not permitted.)
Advance voting days are scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 24 at the Queensborough Community Centre and Wednesday, Jan. 31 in council chamber at New Westminster City Hall.
On general voting day – Saturday, Feb. 3 – these are the five polling stations where you’ll be able to vote between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
- Queen Elizabeth Elementary School gym – 921 Salter St.
- Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary School gym – 1714 Eighth Ave.
- Fraser River Middle School gym – 800 Queens Ave.
- Glenbrook Middle School gym – 701 Park Cres.
- Skwo:wech Elementary School gym – 331 Richmond St.
According to the City of New Westminster, anyone who is registered to vote should receive a voter card in the mail in mid-January 2024. People can also register at the polling stations.
The Feb. 3 byelection isn’t the first time New West voters have headed to the polls fill a seat on the school board between general elections.
In June 2016, Mary Lalji beat Beattie in a byelection prompted by the March 2016 resignation of then-trustee MaryAnn Mortensen.
Turnout for the June 2016 school board byelection was low – with just 4.05 per cent of voters casting ballots to fill the vacancy on school board. At that time, election staff told the Record that 1,859 of the 45,865 eligible voters who were registered to vote had cast a ballot in the byelection.
Lalji beat Beattie by 60 votes in the June 2016 byelection. After losing to Lalji in the byelection, Beattie ran successfully as part of Team Cote in the 2018 general election.
In the October 2022 election, Beattie was re-elected as part of the Community First New West slate, placing fourth in the nine-person race to fill the seven spots on the New Westminster board of education.
Less than a year later, Beattie resigned after admitting she was behind a fake Twitter account in the name of “Allan Whitterstone” that had made "inappropriate comments" towards local parents and others. Her actions came to light in June 2023, after New West parent Sarah Arboleda posted a thread on Twitter (now X) with a thread suggesting that Beattie was behind the fake account.
In June 2023, Beattie issued a statement saying she sincerely apologized to all who were hurt by her actions and expressing regret that her behaviour had hurt the “wonderful team” at Community First New Westminster that had supported her. In June 2023, she took a medical leave of absence from the board – before resigning in September 2023.
