Monday, November 21, 2011

Observations on the 2011 elections in this region

Langford had the lowest turnout in BC at 13.98%, Esquimalt had the third lowest at 17.99%.   No a single municipality had more than half the people vote, in 2008 two did.   Only four municipalities had more than 1/3 of the people vote.   I am not 100%, but I suspect the Greater Victoria Area had the lowest turnout in BC.

The North Saanich election was the closest one out there with a gap of only 228 votes between first and 9th.  Jack Thornburgh lost by only 12 votes.   The difference between 8th and 2nd was only 94 votes.

In Sidney Tim Chad, who came 7th in 2008, came 5th and won this time.   His total vote went down by 16 votes.

Overall 9 mayors are returning and four are new.   Out of the councilors, 65 incumbents ran and 58 were re-elected and 27 are new.   We had more incumbents run this time than in 2008 with not much of an increase in defeated incumbents.   No incumbent mayor was defeated in 2011, in 2008 three of them were.

Defeated Incumbents - I think this all of them - 10 in total, 7 city councilors and 3 trustees.

Victoria had three sitting incumbents defeated, Lynn Hunter, John Luton and Philippe Lucas.  All them were serving their first term.   There was a clear shift away from the Dean Team and towards the minority on the last council.

Central Saanich saw Susan Mason defeated.  John Garrison, who topped the polls in 2008 was almost defeated as well.   Interestingly, Carl Jensen got 55 fewer votes than in 2008 but came third instead of 8th as he did in 2008.

In Sooke, two of the five incumbents running for re-election were defeated - Sheila Beech and Ron Dumont.

Ernie Robertson lost in Colwood, he came in 9th

Greater Victoria School District #61 had three sitting incumbents defeated, I am stunned.   Four of the incumbents lost between 1015 and 2363 votes.   Four of the five candidates endorsed by the Greater Victoria Teachers Association were elected, one of them, Catherine Alpha, had an increase of 2137 votes.

No comments: