Mayor George Harvie and the Achieving for Delta team rolled to a big victory in this year’s municipal election, taking all the council seats and all but one of the school board seats.
First elected mayor in 2018, the former longtime Delta city manager won by a wide margin over mayoralty challengers Peter van der Velden and Joginder Randhawa.
Proudly making note that council for the first time in its history has two people of South Asian decent, Harvie on election night (Oct. 15), said the demographics of Delta are changing, and so is council.
Incumbent Alicia Guichon topped the polls again among council candidates, followed by incumbent Dylan Kruger.
New to council are Daniel Boisvert and Jessie Dosanjh, both school board trustees who made the switch to run for council, as well as newcomers Jennifer Johal and Rod Binder.
Council was guaranteed to have a new-look with Lois Jackson, Bruce McDonald, Jeannie Kanakos and Dan Copeland not seeking re-election.
McDonald was first elected to council in 1988 and served nine terms, while Kanakos had served all but one term since 2005. Copeland served one term.
Jackson was the longest serving member of council in Delta’s history, first elected as alderman in 1972 and serving continuously, expect for one term, until she became mayor in 1999. She didn’t seek re-election as mayor in 2018 but came back that election for one more term as councillor.
Harvie would later be elected chair of Metro Vancouver by the regional board of directors.
Meanwhile, the changes on the school board also saw trustee Laura Dixon not seek re-election, while Bruce Reid ran but lost his seat.
Topping the polls was incumbent Erica Beard, followed by incumbent Val Windsor, who later became board chair once again.
New to school board are Ammen Dhillon, Masako Gooch, Nimmi Daula and Joe Muego.
The final seat went to incumbent Nick Kanakos, the only non-Achieving for Delta member on school board.
