There will be a few new faces along with familiar ones on council come December following the District of Squamish municipal election Saturday (Nov. 14). Incumbent candidates Mike Jenson and Jeff McKenzie will not be returning to council come December and Greg Gardner will take the mayor's after an election that saw 4,629 votes cast by 41 per cent of eligible voters.Gardner, who was first elected to council in a 2006 by-election, becomes mayor of Squamish with 80.5 per cent of the ballots cast. Gardner said his first order of business is to take a break and re-group. "I'm going to take a week off and during that week I'm going to gather my thoughts," he said during celebrations at Rockwell's restaurant at the Garibaldi Springs Golf Resort. "Very early in December, I hope to have a strategic planning session so we can as a team decide what our top priorities are and move forward from there." Popular political pundit Terrill Patterson received a much slimmer margin than his last run for council with only 513 votes, of 16.2 per cent of ballots. The final mayoral candidate, John Erickson, received 3.3 per cent of the votes.While few residents could express surprise at the mayoral results, the race for six council seats was far from a sure thing. Topping the ballots with 56.7 per cent of voter support is retired lawyer Doug Race. Race said he feels honoured by the vote."I'm really looking forward to the challenge," he said. Race said he wants to make employment a priority."That's the key to a whole bunch of things. It's a key to better tax revenue, it's a key to people having jobs here opposed to commuting."Incumbent and longstanding council member Corinne Lonsdale, the second most popular candidate with 53.1 per cent support, appeared elated with the win and said she had been "really nervous.""There really were a lot of really good candidates this time. I wondered if I'd worked hard enough and I'm just so thankful that people put their trust in me again and I'll work just as hard for the next three years."Lonsdale did not hesitate over her priorities."Financial stuff is always number one with me, and jobs. Jobs."Upon hearing results of his strong third place finish from his party at the Howe Sound Brew Pub, Bryan Raiser, for whom 49.6 per cent of voters cast ballots, expressed his love for the community. "Even people who disagree with my opinions once in a while know I love this town and I want to see it do good. I'm just stoked that I'm going to have a hand in making Squamish the great place we all know it can be."Raiser said he's made his priorities known and is now anxious to get to work."For years, I've been saying we should be doing this, we should be doing that. Now, I finally get to find out exactly why we haven't done any of that, so it's exciting."The environment topped several candidates' agendas this election, and fourth place candidate Patricia Heintzman, who got 48.8 per cent of voters' support says she'll continue to pursue green solutions."Water metering and the new garbage phase are important things that need to get done, but the community is concerned about them because of the fiscal issues," she said from her celebrations at the Brackendale Art Gallery. "We need a mindshift, making these things a priority, to a different way of thinking."Heintzman echoed Gardner's sentiment over the council group's cohesiveness."We need to develop respect and understanding of each other rather than outsmart each other."Fifth place contender Rob Kirkham, who had 42.9 per cent of voters cast a ballot for him, said winning the election felt "great." A large part of that had to do with the rest of the newly-elected members."I think you're better to have a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds so that all of the community gets represented and we can work together the reach a consensus. It looks like we have a pretty good variety of people on council."The Scotia Bank manager said he anticipates finances and budget issues to be the challenge going into City Hall."I know probably there's going to be quite a struggle because it already looks like there's going to have to call for a raise in taxes but I'm really not interested in that at all."The final candidate to earn a council seat with 37.4 per cent of voter support, Paul Lalli said he feels "humbled" by the victory."I've been out of politics for six years in Squamish. I'm honoured and I respect the people of Squamish electing me again to the position of council."Lalli said he hopes to address "the issues with fiscal mismanagement that we've had over the last six years" by adopting "out of the box" strategies for revenue opportunities.With files from Neil Judson and Erica Timmerman.
