By Elizabeth Gautschi, Civic Affairs Convenor
It’s Election Time! VOTE on October 15!
Oct – Advance Voting Opportunities – dates vary. Check with your city electoral office. Oct 14 – Deadline for receiving mail-in ballot packages 4:00 pm
Oct 15 – General Voting Day from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm
Oct 19 – Declaration of official election results 4:00 pm
What’s happening in your riding? Do you know who is running for mayor? For council? For school board?
Two long-time city councillors, Harold Steves in Richmond and Lois Jackson in Delta, will not be running again. Harold Steves has served on Richmond City Council continuously since 1977, and served a previous term as alderman from 1968-1973 before serving as an NDP MLA from 1973-1975. He is one of the founders of the Agricultural Land Reserve. Lois Jackson served as Mayor of Delta from 1999 to 2018. She was elected to Delta Council in 1973 and became the first woman elected to the position of Delta Councillor. Under her leadership as Mayor, Lois served as Chair of the Metro Vancouver Board of Directors from 2006 to 2011.
In Port Coquitlam, Brad West has been acclaimed and has won a second term as Port Coquitlam mayor after no one signed up to run in opposition by the September 9 deadline. Two trustee spots on School District 43’s board of education will be held again by Michael Thomas and Christine Pollock, being acclaimed and earning a third and second term.
Delta residents will vote to elect one mayor, six city councillors, and seven school trustees. Candidates for mayor are: George V. Harvie, Joginder Randhawa, and Peter Van Der Velden.
New Westminster voters will elect one mayor, six councillors and seven school trustees. There are three candidates for mayor: Ken Armstrong, Patrick Johnstone and Chuck Puchmayr.
In the city of North Vancouver, voters will elect one Mayor, six Councillors, and three School Trustees. Linda Buchanan and Guy Heywood are the mayoral candidates.
In Surrey, there are 84 candidates running for office but there can only be one mayor, eight councillors and seven school trustees.
In Vancouver, with a long list of candidates, including 15 running for mayor, there is one mayor, ten councillors, seven park board commissioners and nine school trustees to be elected. There are now five main challengers in the race for Mayor: Fred Harding, Colleen Hardwick, Mark Marissen, Ken Sim, and Kennedy Stewart.
Remember that at our October 3 Vancouver Council of Women Meeting we will have an election panel made up of some of the women candidates running for Mayor, City Council, School Board and Parks Board. Since my last report, we now have 16 confirmed speakers at our event:
| Mayor | Colleen Hardwick (TEAM) |
|---|---|
| City Council | Sarah Kirby Yung (ABC Vancouver) |
| Cleta Brown (TEAM) | |
| Adriane Carr (Green) | |
| Iona Bonamis, (One City) | |
| Asha Hayer (Progress Vancouver) | |
| Marie Noelle Rosa (Progress Vancouver) Elaine Allen (NPA) | |
| Arezo Zarrabian (NPA) | |
| Leslie Bolt (Vision) | |
| School Board | Susie Mah (COPE) |
| Krista Sigurdson (One City) | |
| Park Board | Laura Christensen (ABC Vancouver) |
| Maira Hassan (COPE) | |
| Tricia Riley (Green) | |
| Hilary Thomson (Vision) |
Plan to attend our Vancouver Council of Women on October 3. Lunch is at 11:30 am and the Election Panel begins at 12:15 pm.
We have limited seating capacity. Please let Bev Wong know how many guests you will be bringing.
Are you registered to vote? Check with your city’s electoral office on line or by phone.