New Westminster Election Results: Patrick Johnstone to Focus on Housing and Climate as New Westminster Mayor

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As the new mayor of New Westminster, Patrick Johnstone said he will work with the new council to continue the work started under the previous council, promising to continue to focus on housing and climate.

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Johnstone and his Community First New Westminster party will lead a list of four council members and six school administrators.

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With all 23 polls reporting about an hour after polls closed Saturday night, the former councilman finished with 6,676 votes, a margin of 1,449 votes over second-place New Westminster attorney Ken Armstrong, who polled 5,227 votes.

“The people of New West have given us a clear mandate,” Johnstone said in the council chambers where he viewed the results with family and colleagues before heading to a New Westminster waterfront restaurant for a victory party.

“We didn’t stop at the negative, we ran a very positive campaign” and voters responded to that, he said.

The mayor’s seat was empty after incumbent Jonathan Cote announced he would not run. Chuck Puchmayr, also a former councilman, was third in the mayoral race, with 3,912 votes.

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Despite losing the mayoral race, Armstrong said he was pleased that two councilors from his party, Paul Minhas and Daniel Fontaine, won seats. The other four councilors are from Community First, Ruby Campbell, Jaimie McEvoy, Tasha Henderson and Nadine Nakagawa.

“Our team was able to make a breakthrough on the council,” Armstrong said when contacted by phone after the results were announced.

Armstrong’s selection of progressive school administrator candidate Danielle Connelly was a significant achievement, considering the political group met for the first time for the 2018 election.

The other trustees, all from Community First, are Maya Russell, Marc Andres, Dee Beattie, Cheryl Sluis, Gurveen Dhaliwal, and Elliott Slinn.

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Armstrong said progressives will continue to seek solutions to the problems they promised to address during the campaign, including the problem of disorderly streets and deteriorating infrastructure such as highways.

He said it was too early to decide on his own political future.

Puchmayr was not available for comment on Saturday.

Sam Schechter, a communications professor at Douglas College with an interest in municipal governments, said the two new parties did well.

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Voters arriving at a New Westminster polling place near Moody Park were thinking about things like housing, employment and crime when they filled out their ballot just before it closed on Saturday.

“I think the main problems are rent and jobs,” said Catalin Dinu, who, with his wife Mirela Rotaru, immigrated from Romania for six years and was voting for the first time in Canada.

“We enjoy voting for the first time, the opportunity and the right, and we hope for the best for our community.”

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Rotaru said he “didn’t mind saying I voted progressive. Something new can be good for the city”.

“Housing is important,” said Emily Lampson, who also voted at the end of the day. “Rents are going up, everything is really going up and it’s getting scary. Some people say they will leave town, but where would you go?

She would like the city to protect rental stock.

The city, with a size of approximately 15 square kilometers and a population of 78,916, according to the 2021 Statistics Canada census, is the 17th most populous municipality in BC. It grew 11 percent from 2016.

Their median age is young, with people of working age, between 15 and 64, making up about 71 percent of the population, higher than the national average of 65 percent. Meanwhile, those over 65 make up about 15 percent of the total, below the national average of 19 percent, and those under 14 make up the remaining 12 percent.

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