Voting polls for the 2022 municipal elections closed at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday and ballots have all been counted.
Greater Victoria has spoken and we now have 13 new mayors and a whole lot of new councillors elected thanks to the democratic process.
Victoria
This historic election had the most turnover of councillors on record and 38% of eligible voters made it out to a polling station to cast their votes.
Previous mayor, Lisa Helps did not run for re-election for her seat, nor did seven out of eight councillors.
Stephen Andrew called newly elected Mayor Alto’s campaign team to concede the vote at around 9:30 p.m. Mayor Alto led Andrews by about 1,000 votes at the time of concession.
“It looks like there will be eight relatively new councillors,” said Mayor Alto in a press conference following her win.
“If former councillor Coleman is elected, he has some experience. But certainly with seven or eight very, very new people, if ever there was a time when you wanted a good facilitator at the helm it’s now.”
This year there were eight people running for the mayoral race and 36 people running for the eight seats on city council.
Notably, individuals representing the grassroots electoral organization Viva Victoria didn’t claim any seats on city council.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Marianne Alto – 55.5%
Councillors:
- Jeremy Caradonna – 7.6%
- Susan Kim – 7.4%
- Matt Dell – 7.4%
- Krista Loughton – 6.7%
- Dave Thompson – 6.5%
- Christopher Mark Coleman – 5.7% (served prior to 2018)
- Stephen Hammond – 5.3%
- Marg Gardiner – 4.9%
Esquimalt
Esquimalt’s election had two candidates for mayor and seven candidates for the six council seats. So it’s safe to say, only one candidate in each category is disappointed with the election results.
Sonya Gracey missed the cut on replacing Mayor Barb Desjardins by a mere 475 votes.
Chris Munkacsi missed out on a council seat by only 196 votes.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Barb Desjardins – 56.6% (incumbent)
Councillors:
- Duncan Cavens – 72.4%
- Tim Morrinson – 69% (incumbent)
- Darlene Rotchford – 68.8%
- Andrea Boardman – 68.8%
- Jacob Helliwell – 68.6% (incumbent)
- Ken Armour – 59.8% (incumbent)
Saanich
This municipality represents the largest populous in Greater Victoria.
Fred Haynes was running fo re-election against three-term Saanich Councillor and CRD Director Dean Murdock.
In a very close race, newly elected Mayor Dean Murdock won over former mayor Fred Haynes.
Mayor Murdock had 13,631 votes and Haynes had 13,479. A difference of only 152 votes.
A total of 24 candidates were running for council seats in this race, the second largest group of candidates next to Victoria.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Dean Murdock – 48.7%
Councillors:
- Colin Plant – 58.4% (incumbent)
- Susan Brice – 54.9% (incumbent)
- Zac de Vries – 51% (incumbent)
- Jusdy Brownoff – 42.3% (incumbent)
- Mena Westhaver – 41%
- Nathalie Chambers – 38% (incumbent)
- Karen G Harper – 37.3% (incumbent)
- Teale Phelps Bondaroff – 33%
North Saanich
Not quite Sidney and not quite Central Saanich, this unique area of the CRD had quite the electoral race.
Previous mayor, Geoff Orr did not run for re-election. Instead former councillor Murray Weisenberger ran against two newcomers, Peter Jones and Nancy Borden.
For the six council seats North Saanich has to offer, 13 candidates participated in the election.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Peter Jones – 58.7%
Councillors:
- Jack McClintock – 62% (incumbent)
- Sanjiv – 60%
- Celia Stock – 58.2% (incumbent)
- Irene Mcconkey – 57.3%
- Phil DiBattista – 42.7%
- Brett Smyth – 40.6% (incumbent)
Central Saanich
In Central Saanich, Mayor Ryan Windsor ran unopposed once again and won by acclamation.
For the hopeful city councillors, eight candidates ran for the six seats. Five of those candidates were running for re-election.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Ryan Windsor – acclaimed (incumbent)
Councillors:
- Sarah Riddell – 74.4%
- Niall Paltiel – 74.3% (incumbent)
- Zeb King – 68.5% (incumbent)
- Bob Thompson – 60.7% (incumbent)
- Gord Newton – 57.2% (incumbent)
- Christopher Graham – 57% (incumbent)
Oak Bay
Mayor Kevin Murdoch ran for re-election unopposed this year and has thus won his seat back by acclamation.
Nine candidates are running for council in Oak Bay, five of whom are running for re-election. There are six seats available for the position of city councillor.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Kevin Murdoch – acclaimed (incumbent)
Councillors:
- Hazel Braithwaite – 64.7% (incumbent)
- Carrie Smart – 64.2%
- Cairine Green – 63.9% (incumbent)
- Andrew Appleton – 63.6% (incumbent)
- Lesley Watson – 54.5%
- Esther Paterson – 47.1% (incumbent)
Highlands
In the 2018 municipal election, no election was held for the District of Highlands. The Mayor, Ken Williams and every councillor ran unopposed and won by acclamation.
In the 2022 election, Mayor Williams has once again won his seat back unopposed. For the position of city councillor, there are nine candidates running for six seats.
All six councillors elected in the 2018 election were running for re-election and were successful in re-claiming their seats.
Notably two former councillors and married couple, Ken and Marie Brotherston also ran for council as individuals. Even with a combined total of 447 they still would have missed the mark.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Ken Williams – acclaimed (incumbent)
Councillors:
- Karel Roessingh – 63.1% (incumbent)
- Gord Baird – 61.6% (incumbent)
- Ann Baird – 60.7% (incumbent)
- Leslie Anderson – 59.7% (incumbent)
- Rose Stanton – 56.5% (incumbent)
- Marcie McLean – 54.2% (incumbent)
View Royal
Former mayor, David Screech ran unopposed last election, but this year he was up lost against the newly elected Mayor of View Royal, Sid Tobias.
Also notable, in the 2018 election View Royal’s council only had four members. This election, there are seven candidates for a total of six council seats.
All four former councillors were in the race for re-election as councillors.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Sid Tobias – 54.2%
Councillors:
- Damian Kowalewich – 70.4% (incumbent)
- John Rogers – 67.2% (incumbent)
- Alison MacKenzie 66.8%
- Ron Mattson – 65.2% (incumbent)
- Gary Lemon – 63.3% (incumbent)
- Don Brown – 59.7%
Colwood
Previous mayor and former councillor, Rob Martin only had one contender for the mayoral seat in the Colwood municipal election, Doug Kobayashi.
Newly elected Mayor Kobayashi was able to beat out the previous mayor 2,559 votes to 1,216 votes.
For the six council seats available Colwood had 10 candidates. Three of those candidates were seeking re-election.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Doug Kobayashi (67.4%)
Councillors:
- Ian Ward – 65.2%
- David Grove – 59.1%
- Cynthia Day – 55.5% (incumbent)
- Dean Jantzen – 54.8% (incumbent)
- Misty Olsen – 53.7%
- Kim Jordison – 48.1%
Langford
Langford’s Stewart Young has been the mayor since 1993 when the community incorporated. In 2018, he defeated Robert Fraser by a landslide and this election, he had Scott Peter Goodmanson to compete with.
In an extraordinary upset, newly elected Mayor Scott Peter Goodmanson has beaten the only mayor Langford has ever had.
Mayor Goodmanson had 4,483 votes compared to Stew Young’s 3,796.
For the position of councillor, there were 14 candidates vying for six seats.
The fastest growing municipality in Greater Victoria had two electoral organizations within those candidates, meaning not all of them were running as individuals.
Seven candidates, including Stew Young, make up ‘Community First Langford’ and five candidates comprised ‘Langford Now’.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Scott Peter Goodmanson – 53.1%
Councillors:
- Colby Harder – 60.1% (Langford Now)
- Mary Wagner – 57.4% (Langford Now)
- Keith Yacucha – 54.3% (Langford Now)
- Kimberley Guiry – 50.4% (Langford Now)
- Mark Morley – 48% (Langford Now)
- Lillian Szpak – 41.6% (incumbent)
Sooke
Sooke’s election was a big one with three mayoral candidates and 23 candidates for council.
Maja Tait was a councillor for two terms before serving two terms as mayor. This year she was up against two newcomers, Mick Rhodes and John Knops.
Mayor Tait had 2,403 votes as compares to Rhodes and Knops 578 and 246 votes respectively.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Maja Tait – 72% (incumbent)
Councillors:
- Dana Lajeunesse – 54.1% (incumbent)
- Jeff Bateman – 44.7% (incumbent)
- Megan McMath – 40.1% (incumbent)
- Al Beddows – 37.8% (incumbent)
- Kevin Pearson – 36.2% (served prior to 2018)
- Tony St-Pierre – 32% (incumbent)
Metchosin
A small but mighty municipality, best known for holding the terroir that could produce Jesse Roper for the world’s benefit.
There are around 4,100 voters eligible to cast a vote in Metchosin. They were tasked with picking one mayor and four councillors.
Former mayor John Ranns did not run for re-election so voters had to pick between two former councillors to represent them as mayor.
Eight candidates ran for council, only one of whom was running for re-election.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Marie-Térèse Little – 27.5%
Councillors:
- Steve Gray – 34.4%
- Sharie Epp – 35.3% (incumbent)
- Jay SHukin – 28%
- Shelly Donaldson – 27.6%
Sidney
Cliff McNeil-Smith won the mayoral seat by acclamation, so Sidney’s voters needed only to pick six new councillors from the nine candidates that ran.
Here are the results:
Mayor:
- Cliff McNeil-Smith – acclaimed (incumbent)
Councillors:
- Terri O’Keeffe – 75.3% (incumbent)
- Sara Duncan – 74.7% (incumbent)
- Chad Rintoul – 73.1% (incumbent)
- Scott Garnett – 63.4% (incumbent)
- Steve Duck – 61.2%
- Richard Novek – 52%
All election statistics were provided by Civic Info BC.
