As 2022 draws to a close, we’re looking back at the top 10 New Westminster news stories of the year.
Yesterday, we brought you details about weather stories related to New West that occurred through the year.
The journey through the year’s biggest headlines continues today with number 2: the 2022 civic election.
Civic election brings changes to city council and school board
Political retirements and election losses paved the way for some new faces on New Westminster city council and school board.
The 2022 civic election first made headlines on Jan. 1, 2022, when incumbent mayor Jonathan Cote announced he would not be seeking re-election. A month later, Queensborough resident Ken Armstrong announced he’d be running for mayor with the New West Progressives, becoming one of three mayoral candidates who would eventually throw their hat into the ring.
A flurry of announcements came in the spring, when incumbent school trustees Anita Ansari (who topped the polls in 2018) and Mark Gifford, and city councillor Mary Trentadue, announced they wouldn’t be seeking re-election.
After launching as Together New West on Dec. 5, 2021 and changing to Forward New West later that month (after a conflict with the Downtown BIA over the Together New West name), NDP-affiliated candidates joined forces under the Community First New West banner. The group held its inaugural meeting in April and named its slate of candidates in May.
Leading the Community First New West team was incumbent councillor Patrick Johnstone, who was the group’s mayoral candidate.
Incumbent councillors Chinu Das, Jaimie McEvoy and Nadine Nakagawa got the party’s nod for council, as did new political newcomers Ruby Campbell, Tasha Henderson and Bereket Kebede.
On the school board front, Community First supported incumbents Dee Beattie, Gurveen Dhaliwal and Maya Russell, as well as new candidates Marc Andres, Elliott Slinn and Cheryl Sluis.
In July, the New Westminster and District Labour Council endorsed the entire Community First New West slate.
As candidates hit the campaign trail in the spring and summer, Cote took to social media, sharing some of the lighter moments of being an elected official. First elected to council in 2005, he served three terms as a councillor followed by and two terms as mayor.
The New West Progressives, a group that formed prior to the 2018 with the goal of bringing different perspectives to the labour-dominated council and school board, hoped to make a breakthrough on council and elect more candidates to school board. In 2018, Danielle Connolly had become the group’s first elected official, when she won a seat on school board.
With Armstrong at the helm as the group’s mayoral candidate, the NWP council team included Karima Budhwani, Rick Folka, Daniel Fontaine, Jiayi Li-McCarthy and Paul Minhas. Its school board slate included Kathleen Carlsen, Connelly and Teo Dobre,
When the labour council announced the candidates it would be supporting, one of the names not on that list was veteran councillor (and former BC NDP labour critic) Chuck Puchmayr. In August, he announced he would be running as an independent in the three-person mayoral race.
Puchmayr was one of only two independent to run in the 2022 civic election. Downtown businessman Daniel Ampong ran for council.
Who won?
When the votes were tallied on election night, a number of new faces were poised to join incumbents at city council and school board.
Johnstone topped the mayoral race with 6,676 votes, followed by Armstrong at 5,227 and Puchmayr at 3,912.
At council, incumbent councillor Chinu Das lost her seat. Incumbents McEvoy and Nakagawa were re-elected, along with rookies Campbell (who topped the polls), Fontaine, Henderson and Minhas.
The NDP-affiliated, labour-endorsed Community First team remained firmly in control of the political scene – winning the mayor’s race (Johnstone) and four seats on city council (Campbell, Henderson, McEvoy and Nakagawa) and all six seats it sought on school board (Andres, Beattie, Dhaliwal, Russell – who topped the polls, Slinn and Sluis.
At school board, Connolly, an incumbent with the New West Progressives, was re-elected to a second term.
In their second campaign, the NWP made a breakthrough on council with the election of Fontaine and Minhas as councillors.
“We knocked on thousands of doors throughout the campaign, and people were telling us that they were not being heard, that their voices weren't being heard on council,” Fontaine said. “And I think we're a reflection of the fact that people want to have their voice heard, and we're going to make sure that we're going to play that role.”
With his win, Fontaine, who is Metis, became what's believed to be the first Indigenous person to be elected to city council.
Members of both political slates pledged to work together for the betterment of the city.
“I think we're all working together. I think everybody has the same goal in mind; I think everyone has the same goal to serve the city,” Johnstone said on election night. “I'm not at all concerned about building this team together and getting everyone working together again.”
Like Johnstone, the New West Progressives successful council candidates are confident they can work as part of a team on city council – something Connelly managed to do during her first term on school board.
"That's a really old argument about keeping a full slate of one party. I think that we're all in it for the right reasons – students and people in the city. And if you can't work together with those common goals in mind, then you have bigger problems,” she said. “But I think that we're all prepared to collaborate and work well for the interests of everybody in New West.”
Follow Theresa McManus on Twitter @TheresaMcManus
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