I want to congratulate all the winners in the civic election especially Angela Reid and Charlie Hodge who’s presence bodes well for the new city council to be more progressive than the last.
I have already commented on my dissapointment at the low voter turnout, a drop of 35% from 2005. With that large difference from the last election in the number of eligible voters who actually voted, it is difficult to make comparisons of the candidates’ showing on the basis of the actual number of votes they received. However, among all the candidates who ran both three years ago and this year, only Graeme James and I had an increase in the number of votes cast for them. All other candidates experienced a drop in votes with the incumbents suffering the largest decline (Robert Hobson -5068, Andre Blanleil -5043, Brian Given -4027, and Michelle Rule -2371). It is probably most meaningful to compare candidates on their percentage of the total vote. There Graham James fared the best with a gain of 80.3%, I came in second with an increase of 61.8%, Joe Gates gained 36.6%, Mary-Ann Graham picked up 18.2% and Charlie Hodge advanced 10.8%. The incumbents all had a decline. Lastly, I want to congratulate the first time candidates such as Kevin Craig and Toby Pike on their strong showing.
