The Results Are In

Interesting Civic Election - Bronconnier won the mayor's chair quite handily - albeit with a reduced percentage over the 2004 election.

Of the races last night, Ward 1 seems to have sounded a desire for change in that part of the city - with Jennifer Banks giving Dale Hodges a pretty good run for most of the night. Although Hodges won with a comfortable plurality, Banks has positioned herself as a likely replacement for Dale should he decide to retire after this term. (27 years in one career is a long time!)

Helene Larocque's collapse in Ward 3 is also significant. Larocque had alienated a lot of the community associations in her Ward, and people seem to have heard the message loud and clear. It's a good reminder that at the civic level, community associations are an important part of the political landscape, and even if you don't sit on city council, there is a voice that can be made heard from the community associations.

Ward 4 was won handily by Bob Hawkesworth. A perusal of other wards with one or two challengers suggests that the 20% of the vote that Richard Evans pulled down is about average - reflecting the reality that most of the time there's a percentage of people who are going to be unhappy with whoever is in office - and a campaign that even gets a name out there will garner some of that vote.

In Ward 6, Joe Connelly maintained his lead over incumbent Craig Burrows. I haven't heard much about Burrows that I like, and Connelly came across as basically decent and fairly reasonable in his thinking. (It probably helped Connelly that his competition were either positively loopy sounding like Kohut, or associated with politicians like Rob Anders (Istvanffy)).

Ward 8 went to John Mar, a candidate whose platform didn't sound that different from Steve Chapman's. I suspected that Madeleine King was weak in Ward 8, and her commentary on homeless and affordable housing probably didn't resonate well with voters. I'll reserve judgment where Mar is concerned - I think it's important to note that one of Chandler's allies did not win. We do not need civic politics overrun by the "pseudo-party politics" of ideology - much less the kind of ideology that hard-liners like Chandler tend to promote.

Ward 11 was won by Brian Pincott. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how he fares on council. Pincott has run in a lot of elections previously at different levels of government, and he has always struck me as fundamentally earnest and intelligent.

Here's hoping that this city council is effective and capable.