Two of Coquitlam's newest city councillors are in for a busy week.
Councillors-elect Teri Towner and Dennis Marsden spent Monday sitting in meetings and shadowing current councillors ahead of an orientation process on Tuesday, both acknowledging the big learning curve ahead.
The pair finished fourth and fifth during Saturday's civic election, filling the seats vacated by Lou Sekora, the longtime politician who ran for mayor, and Neal Nicholson, who lost his bid for re-election.
Mayor Richard Stewart, who won re-election by a wide margin over Sekora, said that the new councillors will bring different perspectives to the council table. And he added that they will have a lot of work to do in order to be brought up to speed on city issues and the upcoming budget deliberations.
Towner and Marsden will become councillors following the Dec. 1 inauguration meeting in council chambers, where the oath of office will be administered.
Marsden collected 10,372 votes in Saturday's election and Towner 10,223 and both said they'd been campaigning hard.
"I spent 11 hours on the phone Saturday to get the vote out," said Towner. "Obviously, I was hoping I would get elected but I had no idea how it would go."
Marsden said he felt he had run a strong campaign but that he was anxious when the results started coming in.
Both candidates told The Tri-City News that they had not had a decent sleep in the last week.
"It was really up in the air," said Marsden. "I thought [I would finish] anywhere between third and 13th."
