Municipal elections swept through the province in October, and unlike a few small towns, Squamish’s election had no shortage of candidates, and along with them, election drama.
The mayoral race took an unexpected turn, as many assumed it would be a two-way battle between incumbent Mayor Patricia Heintzman and Coun. Susan Chapelle.
After promising to run, Heintzman backed out of the race. Roughly around that time, Jeff Cooke, the president of the Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association, stepped down from the organization in a bid to take her seat.
Then at the end of August, Coun. Karen Elliott, who, until that point, hadn’t been expected to enter the race, did just that. Heintzman would later endorse Elliott as her preferred successor.
Paul Lalli, who served as councillor between 1996 and 2002, declared his candidacy in September.
Chapelle and Elliott would trumpet their past experience at council as a selling point.
The former would play up her credentials as a well-educated small business owner while the latter spoke of her role as a calm mediator who could weather tense negotiations.
Cooke would advertise his lack of political experience and business savvy as the fresh set of eyes that would be needed to govern the town
Lalli pointed back to his previous tenure in council and spoke of himself as a person involved in creating the foundations for Squamish today. He also had very specific suggestions for public amenities, such as free swimming lessons for children.
An independent, Tess Linsley, also entered the fray briefly, but later withdrew her candidacy. Nevertheless, her name still appeared on the ballot, and she captured a handful of votes.
The mayoral campaign brought out something not previously seen before in municipal politics, at least in Squamish.
Anonymous attack ads appeared on Facebook. Social media campaigns pushed a number of unproven allegations against various candidates.
Ultimately, Elliott emerged as the winner among the four after weathering much criticism.
Residents who had been vehemently against the Garibaldi Springs project derided her as being too soft on developers.
Furthermore, a blog post questioning her decision-making with respect to the Rope Runner Squamish course also gained traction online.
Nevertheless, Elliott won by a convincing margin. The one-term councillor amassed roughly 2,273 votes — about 32 per cent of the vote.
Cooke and Chapelle were extremely close for second and third place. The count was 1,674 for the former and 1,625 for the latter — roughly a quarter of the vote each.
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