That was an interesting election, no doubt, although, in the end, there weren’t many surprises. Here are some observations from the past month:
* Energetic, independent Henry Yao set the pace on social media as he was the first to use sponsored posts on Facebook and host an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. Unfortunately for Yao, the largest voting demographic are the least online — seniors.
* Independent Janos Bergman is a linguistics ninja, speaking five languages in his day job as an interpreter. At meetings he often employed his native Hungarian to make a point about the need to communicate in English in public. Bergman’s penchant for Canadian pins and badges on his suits wins him top prize for flair.
* All six incumbents won and the two new councillors who were voted in were the top-two runner-ups from 2011 who ran again. In other words, the best prediction of this election was the last one.
* While all the incumbents were voted back in they proved to be less popular than in 2011, as they all lost significant ground in the popular vote. Although 9,145 more ballots were cast, councillors Linda McPhail and Ken Johnston got fewer votes this time around and everyone saw a dip in the popular vote.
* Coun. Bill McNulty did gain 1,457 of those new votes and broke a record for total votes for a city councillor with 17,417.
* Lee Gildemeester got 1,258 votes and didn’t campaign — at all.
* Rob Howard of the Richmond Community Coalition took credit on behalf of the slate for the city’s higher voter turnout. The group’s formation probably did help create a buzz, but the high number of candidates in general, be they RCC, independent or on another slate also contributed.
* It’s only natural to go after the perceived strongest link in a political campaign. Is that why Richmond First attacked Chak Au on his alleged tax flip (when there were 25 other platforms it could have criticized)? If that theory holds, Au proved them right, gaining 2,376 votes and, as an incumbent, nearly maintaining his relative popularity amongst the electorate.
* More than 1,100 people downloaded the city’s election app and it was used greatly at election night parties. Next election, I highly recommend using it especially if they add an Angry Candidate Birds game to it.
* A tip of the hat to the City of Richmond for quickly posting candidate profiles and documents online; a wag of the finger to candidates who provided little substance in those profiles.
* Bowtie-clad Jack Trovato was the only teacher to run for school board. Despite a double Masters of Education and Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Trovato failed to make the top-10. Strange that he fared so poorly, considering teachers are a relatively politicized bunch. One would have thought they would want a voice on Richmond’s Board of Education.
* It came down to the last poll and Alice S. Wong defeated Matt Pitcairn in the school trustee race by 101 votes. Despite the ‘S’ initial, how many people voted for an MP?
* All four women who ran for school trustee were elected.
* Richard Lee was criticized for never attending a council meeting. But I can tell you, he at least reads the local newspapers front to back, which is more than I can say about some others. In fact, one candidate told me, “they should make that big piece of land into a park,” referring to the Garden City Lands. Some candidates were extremely well versed in local issues; others had done astonishingly little homework.
