Election Comment

Association Members, you should all be very proud of the work we have done over the past months and of the consequent election results. Three of our members, Lorraine Bennest, Peter Waterman and David Finnis, are now councillors. They are articulate, informed and intelligent people who will do a great job for the community. Amie Harbor, another member, came so so close! What a shame she was not elected.

There were some clear messages in the Summerland voting results.

1) Janice Perrino was forthright and passionate in her statements and this, added to her already high profile in the community, gave her more votes than any other councillor candidate.

2) Of the incumbents, Rick Cogbill and Elaine Spittlehouse took the strongest pro growth, pro - Summerland Hills stance, and they received very few votes.

3) Peter Hamilton had everything going against him (he lives in Faulder, was unknown to Summerlanders going into this election, he spent less than any of his opponents, he was working full time so had little time for campaigning) yet he did very well. Peter took a strong position in favour of slow growth, fiscal responsibility, and rigid standards for approval of the Summerland Hills development. He was the only one to say outright that a Referendum on such a huge development was appropriate. 1247 voters liked his message.

4) The Mayoralty race results were stunning, to say the least. David Gregory got almost twice as many votes as his opponents combined. Carla Wright took a more inclusive position than Rick Cogbill did, she provided information for everyone to read on this site, and in return received three times as many votes.
Surely the main message was that voters were very disappointed with Council's performance over the past three years and they trust David Gregory to put Council back on track.