Well it’s over for another four years.
Focussing on the city elections only, the voter turnout wasn’t great and the results weren’t what many were expecting, but the new council will have the most seasoned politicians in the city’s history.
There are just two new faces, Jason Ryll and Craig Smith.
It’s the second time around for the three former mayors. Scott Nelson and Ivan Bonnell were councillors when Walt Cobb was mayor in the 1990s.
Between them the trio must have at least 50 years of experience. Sue Zacharias and Laurie Walters have six years each.
We owe a big thank you to all the candidates. They cared enough about the community to put their names forward to give citizens a choice. That’s what the democratic process is all about.
Four years can be a long time but hopefully some will try again.
And thanks to Kerry Cook who held the hot seat for two terms, and to Geoff Bourdon and Danica Hughes. We don’t always appreciate how much time and effort it takes to run the city.
A special tip of the hat to Surinderpal Rathor who not only devoted 21 years to council, he’s spent most of his life — 40 years — working for the betterment of this community in so many different ways.
Along with dealing with the election issues (the declining downtown core, economic development, city finances, etc.) there are many other heavy duty matters facing the new council, such as the Mount Polley Mine situation, the controversial Highway 97 intersection plan, and who knows what else will come along.
We can expect an “open for business” approach in dealing with issues as all four of the newly-elected are businessmen.
Four is the magic number, the majority on council.
Another change is that we’ve gone from having four women to two. I have no idea if that will make any difference.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
