NPA's Hector Bremner wins byelection to become Vancouver City Councillor

Oct 15 2017, 9:21 am

Non-Partisan Association candidate Hector Bremner has been elected Vancouver’s newest City Councillor, in the first byelection in the city for 25 years.

The byelection was triggered by the departure of Councillor Geoff Meggs, who left the Council to serve as Chief of Staff to new BC Premier John Horgan.

Meggs was a member of the Vision Vancouver party, which holds a controlling majority of seats on the Council, led by Mayor Gregor Robertson.

With only 16 byelections held since the founding of Vancouver, Meggs’ departure offered a rare opportunity to opposition candidates wishing to join the table.

According to provisional election results, with 53/53 voting places reporting, Bremner won with 27.83% of votes, collecting 13,372 votes, of a total 48,645.

The full breakdown of the results:

  • Hector Bremner, NPA – 13,372 votes, 27.83%
  • Jean Swanson, Independent – 10,263 votes, 21.36%
  • Pete Fry, Green Party – 9,759 votes, 20.31%
  • Judy Graves, OneCity – 6,327 votes, 13.17%
  • Diego Cardona, Vision Vancouver – 5,411 votes, 11.26%
  • Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon, Sensible Vancouver – 1,737 votes, 3.62%
  • Gary Lee, Independent – 886 votes, 1.84%
  • Damian J. Murphy, Independent – 157 votes, 0.33%
  • Joshua Wasilenkoff, Independent – 131 votes, 0.27%

Bremner’s election now means Vision Vancouver, the majority party of Mayor Gregor Robertson, loses a seat, although keeps its majority.

The make up of the Vancouver City Council is now:

  • Mayor Gregor Robertson (Vision Vancouver)
  • Councillor Raymond Louie (Vision Vancouver)
  • Councillor Heather Deal Vision (Vision Vancouver)
  • Councillor Kerry Jang (Vision Vancouver)
  • Councillor Andrea Reimer (Vision Vancouver)
  • Councillor Tim Stevenson (Vision Vancouver)
  • Councillor Elizabeth Ball (Non-Partisan Association)
  • Councillor  George Affleck (Non-Partisan Association)
  • Councillor  Melissa De Genova (Non-Partisan Association)
  • Councillor Hector Bremner (Non-Partisan Association)
  • Councillor Adriane Carr (Green Party)

Bremner will serve on City Council until the next municipal election scheduled for next year, when candidates will run for full four-year terms.

New school board also elected

Nine new Vancouver school board trustees were also elected today, one year after the BC Liberals fired the last school board for failing to pass a balanced budget.

Back in October, the BC Liberals replaced the school board with former Delta school district superintendent Dianne Turner, who was appointed official trustee.

However, in August, the newly-elected BC NDP government announced they would be restoring the democratically-elected school board.

By holding the school board byelection on the same day as the City Council byelection, it was expected to save the school district up to $1.5 million.

According to provisional results, voters elected the nine new school board trustees as follows:

  • Janet Fraser, Green Party – 27,360 votes, 8.35%
  • Judy Zaichkowsky, Green Party – 23,383 votes, 7.14%
  • Estrellita Gonzalez, Green Party – 20,307 votes, 6.20%
  • Joy Alexander, Vision Vancouver – 19,709 votes, 6.02%
  • Allan Wong, Vision Vancouver – 18,678 votes, 5.70%
  • Lisa Dominato, NPA – 18,258 votes, 5.57%
  • Fraser Ballantyne, NPA – 18,048 votes, 5.51%
  • Carrie Bercic, OneCity – 17,822 votes, 5.44%
  • Ken Clement, Vision Vancouver – 17,583, 5.37%

Turner will remain as a special advisor to assist with the transition into the governance of the newly elected board.

This byelection was the first held in Vancouver since 1992. Preliminary figures indicate an extremely low turnout, standing at only 10.99% of registered voters at the time of writing.

Official results are expected on Wednesday, October 18.

Jenni SheppardJenni Sheppard

+ News
+ Politics
+ City Hall
ADVERTISEMENT