There will be little change in Chilliwack’s political landscape following Saturday’s municipal election.
Sharon Gaetz easily brushed aside two challengers in Saturday’s municipal election, earning her third term as Chilliwack mayor.
And all but one incumbent was re-elected to city council.
In the Chilliwack school district, meanwhile, all six incumbents seeking re-election earned their seats back.
Gaetz, who went unchallenged in 2011, secured 10,183 of the votes cast for the win.
Her closest rival came from Cameron Hull who garnered 2,731 votes.
Raymond Cauchi finished a distant third with 1,066 votes.
Gaetz will be joined by couple of new faces around the council table.
Incumbents Sue Attrill, Jason Lum, Ken Popove and Chuck Stam were all re-elected. But they’ll be joined by newcomers Sam Waddington (who garnered the most votes overall) and Chris Kloot.
Failing to win a third term was Stewart McLean.
Gaetz said it was really exciting to see council moving forward on election night.
"First of all let's give a huge cheer for everyone who voted," said Gaetz, in making her victory speech to family, friends and supporters.
"The biggest thing it tells me is that the community is pleased with the direction council is taking."
She noted it was a young council coming in to take the reins, and she's thrilled with all the possibilities presenting themselves.
"The way they spoke at the meetings gave me great hope."
Some of the nastier developments on social media gave her pause initially, however, to think that maybe the city "wasn't marching in the same direction" as the people.
"It's great to see that people truly are proud of their council and showed it by voting the majority of incumbents back into office. The voters have spoken and they have elected some really fine folks to stand with us."
She said she was sorry to see incumbent Stewart McLean fail to earn his bid for re-election.
"He was a great councillor and he worked hard on behalf of the city," she said.
Incumbent Jason Lum was re-elected with the second highest number of councillor votes with a total of 7,842, behind newcomer Sam Waddington who earned the top spot with 8,680 votes.
Lum said it was surprising to see Waddington skyrocket to the top of the polls the way he did, but pegged him as a guy who is ready to work hard for council.
At the Chilliwack Board of Education, meanwhile, there will be one new face.
Paul McManus comfortably won a seat on the board.
He’ll be joined by all six incumbents seeking re-election: Dan Coulter, Silvia Dyck, Walt Krahn, Heather Maahs, Barry Neufeld and Martha Wiens.
Doug McKay did not run.
At the Cultus Lake Park Board, Darcy Bauer and David Renwick easily won the two seats Chilliwack voters had a say in.
Overall, the unofficial results for Chilliwack city Council were:
1 WADDINGTON, Sam 8,680
2 LUM, Jason 7,842
3 POPOVE, Ken 7,548
4 STAM, Chuck 7,132
5 ATTRILL, Sue 6,027
6 KLOOT, Chris 4,916
7 MacAHONIC, Patti 3,783
8 McLEAN, Stewart 3,631
9 HARDER, Kim 3,620
10 GOOSEN, Gerry 3,143
11 HARRINGTON, Dick 3,030
12 CURRIE, Brenda 2,621
13 KHA, Michael 2,557
14 BRUCE, Phill 2,453
15 CROSBIE, Brigida 1,133
16 MAXWELL, Phillip 912
17 WILLIAMS, Richard 619
School Board:
1 KRAHN, Walt 6,780
2 NEUFELD, Barry 6,328
3 COULTER, Dan 6,131
4 DYCK, Silvia 5,738
5 McMANUS, Paul 5,007
6 MAAHS, Heather 4,649
6 WIENS, Martha 4,540
8 HARTER, John-Henry 4,384
9 JARVIS, Karen 4,102
10 MUSSELL, Marion L. 3,772
11 BESLER, Ben 3,019
12 CONWAY, Karen 2,120
13 STELMASCHUK, Rob 1,843
Poll by poll results can be found here.
Voter turnout this year edged past the dismal results from 2011, when only 14.6 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.
This year a 12,921 people voted (not including advanced and special polling stations) – or 20.6 per cent of the estimated 62,862 eligible voters.
