The anxiety and sleepless nights were forgotten with the arrival of a one-word text.

“Wo-bam.”

To Nancy Cooper and her family, Wo-bam, the word created some time ago by a young grandson, indicates if something is good.

She received the text from a family member who was monitoring the election night count at the community centre.

Not long after came a follow-up text.

“Wo-frickin-bam.”

Cooper had been re-elected by a landslide, or, as one family member described it, a rockslide.

Unofficial results show Cooper winning with 2,343 votes, more than 1,200 over second-place finisher, former mayor Marty Bootsma’s 1,088 ballots.

Bootsma said he doesn’t think it was a matter of vote splitting.

“Nancy just blew us away,” he said, acknowledging he has no idea why the vote went the way it did.

“I’m disappointed and surprised, but c’est la vie, it was a nice, clean campaign and I wish her well.”

Incumbent councillor Debbie Cannon came in third in the mayoral race with 950 votes, while former mayor Ian Wickett was fourth with 657.

Cooper spent election night at home with family and a few friends, not knowing what to expect.

“I wanted to be confident, I have done lots of good stuff, but with four people running, anything can happen.”

She is understandably pleased with the result.

“It says to me that the people really appreciated what I’ve done – so I can go ahead with a big mandate to do what I’ve been doing. It’s quite exciting to have that happen.”

She complimented all the candidates who put their names forward.

“They put themselves out, they did it for the community. I have the utmost respect for Marty, for Debbie, for Ian – you don’t do this for yourself.”

Cooper said she didn’t run a big campaign because she was busy with her job as mayor, but instead ran on her record. She said she did a lot of “management by walking around” during the term, speaking to businesses in the industrial park, for example, and to people at events and on the street.

Cooper said friends and others would tell her she’s a quiet person but she gets things done, so they took it upon themselves to campaign on her behalf.

Although there were rumblings of discontent from a couple of members of the incumbent council regarding her leadership style, Cooper said she thinks it may have been that they had a different view of the mayor’s job than she does.

She notes that the Community Charter describes the mayor as chief executive officer, so she would sometimes do things on her own and then bring them back to council.

“It was different from the previous leadership,” she said.

Cooper said she’s looking forward to working with the new council, “some seasoned councillors and some new blood.”

She doesn’t see a problem having councillors whose views may differ from hers.

“I think it takes time to get to know each other. We need that balance on council, to have different opinions and ideas.”

Cooper has now served one term as councillor and one as mayor, so, when this new four-year term is over, she will have been on council for 10 years. She’s not sure whether she’d take another run at the job.

“I don’t think I’ll be Hazel from Mississauga,” she laughs, referring to McCallion’s 36 years as mayor of the Ontario town. “She retired at 93.”

On council, the three incumbents running were re-elected, Alan Harrison, Ken Jamieson and Chad Eliason. Both Marg Kentel and Denise Reimer did not seek re-election.

Salmon Arm Observer