Polls close in B.C. municipal elections

Jesse Winter Vancouver Published YesterdayUpdated 1 hour ago Open this photo in gallery: A woman walks past a sign directing people to a municipal election polling station in Vancouver. DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press Comments Save for laterPlease log in to bookmark this story. Log InCreate an account The polls have closed in B. Residents voted for local representatives on councils, school boards and other regional posts, choosing from 3,500 candidates across the province. It was quiet at Vancouver’s city hall voting place Saturday, with about half a dozen voters casting their ballots and no lineups. At the nearby SkyTrain station, volunteers with COPE stood with signs asking voters to “evict Ken Sim,” the city’s incumbent mayor, who is running for re-election. The group was also present near Commercial-Broadway station, where Greens candidate Pete Fry campaigned with volunteers earlier in the day. Advance voting in the provincial general election is also taking place Saturday and will continue until Oct. 21, ahead of final voting day on Oct. 24. Five takeaways from the B. C. leaders’ debate NDP Leader David Eby’s decision to call a snap election two years early and in the middle of the planned municipal election period has been denounced . Municipalities passed a resolution at its annual convention last month imploring Eby not to call an election during the local campaign period, but days later he set off the provincial vote. Cori Ramsay, who was the president of the union at the time of the resolution, said since then that the two elections have caused voter confusion and local campaigns lost staff to provincial candidates. Many cities and municipalities have nevertheless reported increased or even record turnout at advance polls, including Vancouver, Richmond, Burnaby, Kamloops, Surrey, Kelowna, Prince George, Cranbrook and View Royal, among others. Polling ahead of the Vancouver vote showed the mayor’s race to be a mostly two-person battle between Mr. Sim and two-term Green councillor Pete Fry, who cemented his place as the consensus progressive candidate after two challengers from the left-leaning parties withdrew. Also in the ring was Kareem Allam, Mr. Sim’s former chief of staff turned adversary. Allam ran under a party called the Vancouver Liberals, which is not affiliated with the federal Liberal party. Rebecca Bligh also ran for mayor under the new Vote Vancouver banner. Bligh is a two-term councillor who helped Mr. Sim win the previous election when she ran with his ABC party but she eventually broke with the mayor.