Longtime councillor Alan Harrison is the new mayor of Salmon Arm.
Harrison defeated incumbent Nancy Cooper, unofficial results 3,387 votes to 1,516.
Mayoral candidate Jim Kimmerly received 758 votes.
Harrison addressed his supporters at the Salmon Arm Curling Club after the resulted were tallied.
Firstly, he thanked the people of Salmon Arm.
“To all of you who voted, to everybody who engaged in the process, thank you for being informed voters and getting out to the polls today.”
He also thanked everyone who ran in the election, from school trustees to mayoralty candidates.
In particular he thanked outgoing mayor Nancy Cooper, who he said has worked tirelessly over the past seven years for Salmon Arm.
“I’d like to recognize that and I’d like you to do that as well,” he said to his supporters.
He also thanked the elected councillors – Chad Eliason, Tim Lavery, Kevin Flynn, Louise Wallace Richmond, Debbie Cannon, Sylvia Lindgren and said he’s looking forward to working with them.
Nancy Cooper, who spent the evening volunteering at Spooktacular at Haney Heritage Village – something she always does but this year it fell on election night, said she hoped the Salmon Arm mayoral race would be closer, but thinks the mayor’s chair which she occupied for two terms is in good hands. Cooper said she thinks Alan Harrison who won the election will do a good job in his new role.
She said her opponent campaigned hard for the position.
“It was a good run. Seven years was good. I was really happy to be the mayor for that long,” said Cooper who spent election night volunteering at R.J. Haney Heritage Village’s Spooktacular Halloween event.
She said she has no plans to return to politics.
