Many of B.C.'s new mayors focused on specific actions to win their race: SFU professor

After British Columbians took to the polls to elect their local representatives on Saturday, several communities across the province have new mayors.

Andrey Pavlov, a finance professor at Simon Fraser University said candidates who had specific proposals, seemed to find success this election.

Victoria, New Westminster, Kelowna and Langley are some of the cities in B.C. that elected new mayors Saturday, as some incumbents chose not to run and others were ousted by their constituents.

Long-time Victoria councillor Marianne Alto has been elected to be Victoria’s next mayor, garnering more than half of the city's votes and beating out seven other candidates.

Alto replaces Lisa Helps, who held the position for eight years and did not run for re-election in 2022.

She's also joined by a brand new team of councillors.

“There’s going to be a lot of new faces at the table. I think that’s a good thing. New energy, new ideas,” she said, following her win.

“At the same time, it’s clear that people wanted someone with experience at the helm and someone who can be a bit of a mentor to some of those people."

Pavlov said Alto was one candidate who had a list of specific actions in her platform.

“Reading her platform, there were very, very specific action items that were focused on more housing and making it easier to build. So I think that appeals to voters,” he said.

On the mainland, Patrick Johnstone of the Community First Party, was voted mayor of New Westminster, beating out candidates Ken Armstrong and Chuck Puchmayr after former mayor Jonathan Cote chose not to run again.

But Pavlov found Johnstone’s win surprising.

"His proposal on housing was very vague. And I didn’t understand what it was really, other than what we’ve been doing already,” he said.

“Also his comments on public safety to me were not clear and it wasn’t clear to me how that’s different than what we’re already doing."

First-time councillor Eric Woodward was declared mayor in the Township of Langley, defeating former BC Liberal cabinet minister Rich Coleman.

“We didn’t get the results we wanted, but that sometimes is life,” Coleman said, following his loss.

One of Woodward’s campaign promises include ensuring 10 per cent of new housing be set aside for affordable rental housing.

While that sounds good on paper, Pavlov finds it concerning as it could lead to fewer homes being built.

"The moment you put any kind of restriction like that, you make it more expensive to build because the remaining units need to pay a larger portion of the construction costs, so this slows down the project and it makes it more expensive for the market units,” he explained.

In Kelowna, it was an interesting win for Tom Dyas as he defeated incumbent Colin Basran by a two-to-one margin after losing by the same margin to Basran in the previous election in 2018.

“As hard as the election was, that was the easy part. Residents have given me a long list of items they will like action on, from crime to housing to traffic,” Dyas told his crowd of supporters.

Housing and public safety do seem to be top of mind for most mayors this election.

Whether they can fulfill those promises will be determined the next four years.