Richmond has elected a new council and school board.
At 8:44 p.m., all 42 polls were counted and former school board chair Linda McPhail of the Richmond First slate, and former school trustee Chak Au, of RITE, became the new faces on city council.
In the race for school trustee, the new faces were Richmond First's Dr. Eric Yung and RITE's Norm Goldstein and Kenny Chiu.
Incumbent mayor Malcolm Brodie won again very comfortable over local lawyer Richard Lee to retain his seat in office.
McPhail's popularity was the surprise of the night, almost edging out fellow Richmond First candidate and city council veteran Bill McNulty for first place.
Her election now gives Richmond First four out of eight councillor berths, with incumbents Derek Dang and Ken Johnston also winning another three-year term.
However, Johnston was made to sweat for a little while, as he and RITE's Carol Day battled it out for much of the night for the last seat on council, before the former finally edged away in the last few of the 42 polls.
McPhail was mystified as to her popularity, saying, "I had a lot of support from a tremendous team and the results showed that."
She said she didn't target any specific sector of the community, but that she did spend a lot of time on the phone. McPhail, however, agreed that being the former school board chair and also the name of McPhail, which she said is well known in the city, definitely helped as well.
However, she was shocked at how high up the polls she was, adding that she had no feeling prior to Saturday night that she'd do so well.
Also scratching his head at the Richmond First head office at Garden City shopping centre was surviving incumbent Johnston, who beat local campaigner Day by 302 votes.
He admitted being "concerned" as the votes were coming and said he was "somewhat puzzled" to see his Richmond First colleagues, McNulty and Dang, be 3,000 votes or so ahead. One theory he had was that voters were shying away from having a dominant Richmond First slate.
"I feel like I've had a productive three years," Johnston said.
"I was the first to challenge the jet fuel pipeline and brought in the puppy sale ban and I've been competent on the city's finances.
"But I guess if I win by one vote, I'm happy."
His similarly re-elected Richmond First colleague, Dang, had a pop at the outgoing councillor and former MLA and mayor, Greg Halsey-Brandt, who suggested the current city council didn't ask enough questions of staff.
"Greg fired off a volley and should have been more statesmanly," Dang said.
Further south in the city, the RITE post-election party at Day's home was in full swing, with the vibe of the Beach Boys and Aretha Franklin filling the air.
A triumphant Au paid tribute to outgoing councillor Sue Halsey-Brandt and Sandra Bourke for being his guiding light on the road to election.
The former school trustee also consoled fellow RITE candidate Carol Day, who lost out by 302 votes, with the news that she now at least has an ally on council and that he'd do his best to give her more than the allotted five minutes speaking time for delegations.
He added that his election is a vote for the people.
However, few people at the RITE party could believe how far up the charts McNulty and McPhail finished.
Day, meanwhile, told the News that her defeat won't stop her being and advocate and activist for the community.
"Maybe I can have a more interesting career on the sidelines."
And in a thinly veiled shot at independent candidate and former councillor Cynthia Chen, Day added, "Cynthia probably spent about $40,000 (on her campaign) and she finished below me."
Mayor Brodie, who thumped Lee by more than 11,000 votes, said he was "pleased" by the result, which indicates that people are, in fact, satisfied with the direction the city is heading.
Brodie said he strongly disagreed with the assertion from certain candidates that city council is a closed shop and is not accountable.
"We consult (city) staff, but council makes the decision," Brodie said.
He added that the outgoing city council team is as "good as I've ever worked with."
Lee lamented the manner of his defeat, but acknowledged that the people of Richmond must be "happy" with the way things are going under the leadership of Brodie.
However, he suggested that, unless you have the financial backing such as a strong slate or from other sources, few stand a chance of getting elected.
"Maybe there should be spending limits on campaigns or independents will never get in?" said Lee.
Former councillor Cynthia Chen, who got ousted by 78 votes in 2008, was more comprehensively beaten this time around. Placing 10th, despite a high-profile campaign.
Olympian and former Canadian champion snowboarder Alexa Loo will now have all the time in the world to concentrate on the upcoming birth of her first child after she placed a respectable 11th at the first time of asking.
Full result:
Office of mayor:
Malcolm Brodie: 20,995
Richard Lee: 9,054
Office of councillor:
ELECTED WERE:
Bill McNulty (Richmond First): 15,960;
Linda McPhail (Richmond First): 15,733;
Derek Dang (Richmond First): 14,793;
Evelina Halsey-Brandt: 14,730;
Linda Barnes: (RCA) 14,311;
Harold Steves: (RCA) 13,908;
Chak Kwong AU: (RITE): 13,366;
Ken Johnston: (Richmond First): 12,983;
NOT ELECTED:
Carol Day: (RITE): 12,681;
Cynthia A. Chen: 12,040;
Alexa Loo: 11,918;
Michael Wolfe: (RITE): 11,465;
Peter Mitchell: 6,209;
De Whalen: (RITE): 5,619;
Cliff Lifeng Wei: 3,841;
Jun L. Wuyan: 2,978;
Ramzan Patni: 1,409
