Langford’s mayor of 30 years has been unseated, along with his council

Scott Goodmanson, a political newcomer, will be Langford’s new mayor, supported by Langford Now’s full slate of candidates and incumbent Lillian Szpak.

“Now we can do everything we’ve wanted to do,” Coun.-elect Mary Wagner said. Her colleagues at Langford Now were elected by a decisive majority, defeating the incumbent council, who had served in relative cohesion for decades.

At campaign headquarters (City Centre Grille in Langford) on Saturday night, Wagner recalled turning to 18-year council veteran Szpak for advice. “I’m thinking about running [for council] in four years, what do you think?”

Szpak’s answer was: “Don’t wait. Run this year.”

Wagner went on to earn 4,844 second only to Colby Harder, a 26-year-old political newcomer who earned 5,072 votes. Read the full Langford analysis here.

Rob Martin soundly defeated by Doug Kobayashi in Colwood

Doug Kobayashi, a one-term councillor, prides himself on listening. He has a habit of knocking on doors to find out what Colwood-ians think, and not just when he's asking for their vote, as he did this fall, as well as last year when he ran unsuccessfully against federal MP Randall Garrison. Listening is an integral part of his leadership style, he says.

“You find out things that you thought were true, and they’re not true. What matters to your constituency may be completely different from what they tell you nationally or provincially,” said Kobayashi.

Colwood's council will also have a mostly new slate; only two incumbent councillors were re-elected: Cynthia Day and Dean Jantzen. Ian Ward, founding director of the Royal Bay Homeowners' Association, which has become increasingly vocal at council meetings, earned the most votes of any councillor—2,476—followed by fellow newcomer David Grove, a former baker of the famed Royal Bay Bakery. The youngest candidate in BC, 19-year-old Steven MacAskill, missed his spot by just 24 votes.

Sid Tobias toppled View Royal's incumbent mayor David Screech

Another upset has taken View Royal's council: Sid Tobias beat out incumbent mayor David Screech for the top spot. The vote for View Royal's new councillors was less competitive, with just seven candidates for six seats. All four incumbent councillors were re-elected, along with Allison MacKenzie and Don Brown who will fill the newly created fifth and sixth seats.

Metchosin’s voter turnout was high but not that high

Initial results showed a remarkable 88.7% of eligible voters cast a ballot, but curiously only about half of them voted for a mayor. Could it be that so many people were undecided between Kyara Kahakauwilla and Marie-Térèse Little, and didn’t make a choice? No, it couldn’t. The initial count was a clerical error that was quickly corrected.

Metchosin has an estimated 4,154 eligible voters, and 1,964 ballots were cast—a 47.3% turnout.

The mix up was a late-night error—counters finished at 1:30am on Sunday morning. The number of votes for each candidate was correct; the only incorrect sum was the total number of ballots cast. Metchosin’s chief election officer, Kerry Fedosenko, reminded the public that all results are preliminary until the Wednesday deadline when local election officials across BC will declare final results, though no major changes are expected.

Little is Metchosin’s mayor-elect, she beat out Kahakauwila by a margin of 82 votes. Their campaign platforms were largely similar, both promising more transparency in council decisions, fewer in-camera meetings, and more consultation. The two have not had a smooth working relationship, especially since a trip Kahakauwila took to Mexico in 2020, against public health advisories. Little also did not have a smooth relationship with Mayor John Ranns, who endorsed Kahakauwila to succeed him. The discord between Ranns and Little became especially apparent when she called the RCMP on him after an angry meeting.

Coun. Sharie Epp was re-elected, and will sit with new councillors Steve Gray, Jay Shukin, and Shelly Donaldson.

Minimal changes in Sooke, just one new councillor fills a vacant seat

All but one of the previous council were re-elected, save Ebony Logins who ran to be a school trustee instead. (Results for the Sooke School Board had not been reported by publishing time.) The new councillor is Kevin Pearson, who served on Sooke council from 2011 to 2018.

A group of candidates called "Elections for Change" said they were not a slate, though they shared a website and many of the same views. None were elected.

No change in Highlands

Highlands was the one municipality with no change. Mayor Ken Williams was acclaimed, that is, no one ran against him, and all six incumbent councillors were re-elected.

Sooke School District's new Board of Education

The school board also had a shake-up, partly because only two incumbent trustees ran—Ravi Parmar and Allison Watson were both re-elected. New board members include: Gitxsan children’s book author and retired nurse Trudy Spiller; elected chief of Scia'new First Nation, Russ Chipps; former vice president of the Sooke school district's PAC and financial administrator, Cendra Beaton; bookkeeper and longtime PAC member, Amanda Dowhy; and former Sooke councillor, Ebony Logins.

If you’re still unsure what a school board trustee really does, we have an answer.

Juan de Fuca’s new area director

The dispersed population in the Juan de Fuca electoral area don’t have mayors and councils; just an area director with the Capital Regional District who works with some local committees. The new area director is Al Wickheim, who won over candidates Sandy Sinclair, Derek Bishop, and Shaunna Salsman by a wide margin. Wickheim will take over from Mike Hicks who represented the region for 14 years.