Cheers and thunderous applause filled the Richmond Curling Club as the RITE slate celebrated the re-election of incumbents Carol Day and Michael Wolfe, with the addition of FarmWatch advocate Laura Gillanders.
With 10,817 votes, Gillanders is one of the two new members of council along with Kash Heed.
"I feel honoured. I'm so grateful that the people of Richmond put their vote and faith in me, and I'm looking forward to working hard and helping shape the next few years of our city," she said, adding that she will be learning the ropes along with Heed.
Day said she was excited for Gillanders to join council, as it will "create a whole new voice and a whole new perspective."
Day, who made history by receiving the most votes as a Richmond city councillor back in the last election, came second this time after RCCA's Chak Au.
With 15,737 votes, Day said she wasn't surprised that her numbers, along with other candidates such as Mayor Malcolm Brodie's, are lower than in 2018.
"I guess there isn't anything so horribly wrong with the city of Richmond, that people aren't as concerned as they might otherwise be. So maybe that's a good sign," she said.
Council a most "dysfunctional team"
Wolfe, another RITE incumbent, also received the public's stamp of approval for his first term as councillor.
Wolfe said he was worried about how the public viewed his performance, and his re-election was "a measurement of (his) success over the four years."
In his speech to a jubilant crowd, he said he is "fired up" to hold Brodie accountable and "make this his last four years as mayor."
Looking forward, Wolfe said council will need "leadership" in order to work together.
"I would hope that sometimes the majority on council realizes that we do need another voice because the current leadership is eroding public trust. It's eroding the teamwork that our council could exhibit," he said.
"I've been on many teams in my life, and this is probably the most dysfunctional one I've ever been on, and it looks like it will continue that way."
If the leadership does not come from the mayor, said Wolfe, it should come from council.
The crowd also commiserated mayoral candidate John Roston's loss at the event.
Addressing the crowd, Roston said he thought it was "impossible" for him to beat Brodie when Day asked him to run for mayor.
"She said, 'That doesn't matter. That's not what this is. This is about talking about the issues, and giving people a chance to vote for someone they trust, and whose policies they believe in,'" he recalled.
"And I think not only have we managed to do that, but it is particularly the young people who have said to me how much they appreciate my running so that they could vote for somebody that (they) believe in."
