It was a tale of three cities in this weekend's civic elections as voters opted for change in Port Moody and mostly status quo in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam.
But all three city councils must still tackle housing affordability and find ways to work with one another on regional issues over the next four years.
Port Moody residents woke up to a divided city Sunday morning after Rob Vagramov narrowly defeated incumbent Mike Clay in one of the more significant upsets of B.C.'s municipal elections.
In Coquitlam, Richard Stewart comfortably retained his position by a margin of more than 10,000 votes and will be working with mostly a veteran council, with two newcomers in Steve Kim and Trish Mandewo. It's a similar situation in Port Coquitlam, where just two newcomers were added, Steve Darling and Nancy McCurrach, and Coun. Brad West's large plurality of more than 9,000 votes gave him a clear mandate to take over from outgoing Mayor Greg Moore.
While affordable housing and quality of life were among the top issues in all three cities, clearly Port Moody believes it is suffering more of the growing pains around density than the other cities, possibly because it was late to the table on development plans despite getting not one but two SkyTrain stations in the city, and is still debating the merits of growth.
Voters axing a proposal to sell or lease city lands is a clear indication of the way most politically active voters in the city want to go and developers would be wise to wait until this council gets its bearings before seeking approvals for new projects.
Coquitlam, which has long been planning for density and was an early adopter of an affordable housing policy, can now move forward on programs to ensure multiple forms of housing are available for people, and continue to ensure infrastructure, such as schools and parks are built or improved in areas being densified.
Port Coquitlam, meanwhile, wants to ensure that its downtown core is viable and will continue to lobby for improved collection of needles, and possibly an end to the harm reduction program, while working with Coquitlam on safety around the 3030 Gordon shelter. It also has approved a housing affordability policy and West has gone on record as wanting more policies to dissuade housing speculation in the city.
In addition, there are now two woman on PoCo council, up from just one for most of the last three decades, while in Port Moody, there are now four women to three men on council.
Voters now have four years to figure out whether they made the right choices.
