The Bow Valley’s political landscape remains largely unchanged after municipal election results were tallied, Monday (Oct. 21).
In Banff, incumbent Mayor Karen Sorensen is back at the helm of a council that will feature two new faces in Corrie DiManno and Ted Christensen. Incumbents Grant Canning, Stavros Karlos, Chip Olver and Brian Standish were all returned to power by voters.
Sorensen received 946 votes (unofficially), while mayoral candidates Jim Abelseth and Cynthia Anderson received 703 and 211, respectively.
In Canmore, incumbent John Borrowman also returns as mayor, having received 2,593 votes to Hans Helder’s 672 and Caleb McMillan’s 53.
The numbers couldn’t have been more exciting for Borrowman, who said he was elated, as the past year since winning the byelection has felt like a “probationary period” for the first-time mayor.
“I have been thinking about it and it has felt like a probationary period for the last 16 months and I was really hoping to get a strong mandate and I got a strong mandate today – this is fabulous,” Borrowman said. “Thank you to everyone in Canmore for showing the confidence in me and I couldn’t be happier tonight.”
Helder acknowledged the electorate of Canmore had obviously spoken, with 78 per cent of the vote going to Borrowman.
“Obviously I was disappointed and also it is pretty clear the electorate have spoken and I have said before voters are never wrong, so they have made their choice for mayor and done so pretty convincingly,” he said.
Elected to council in Canmore were first-time councillors Esmé Comfort with 2,083 votes (unofficially) and Rob Seeley with 1,725. Incumbents Sean Krausert with 2,351, Joanna McCallum with 2,320, and Vi Sandford with 2,310 votes will return to council, along with former councillor Ed Russell, who received 1,561 votes.
The Monday election puts Sorensen back in the mayor’s chair for a second term. She was acclaimed in the last election after the retirement of John Stutz.
“First of all,” she said after her victory was announced at the Banff Seniors’ Centre, “I’m delighted and honoured to continue as mayor and I’m anxious to get back to work. I want to congratulate all the candidates.”
Running a campaign rather than being acclaimed was, “a different experience,” said Sorensen. “I felt confident through the campaign process, but you never know what might happen in an election. I’m very grateful to the voters.”
The 2013 election marks the first time four-year terms will be served by municipal politicians and Sorensen favours the change. “I think it will make the committees more effective,” she said.
With three-year terms, she said, it often takes council members a year to get comfortable on a committee and then two years where work is done.
“With four years, I think there will be a natural flip point. You could take a year to learn what’s going on and then shake it up and finish a term. I think at the end of the day it will allow us to get more done.”
Getting more done will be a matter of working councillors new and experienced now, she said. “I think having some consistency in the new team is crucial, but it’s nice to have new blood on council too.”
The first order of business, said Mayor Sorensen, will be a service review, then the budget process and transportation master plan trial projects.
In Banff, the new council will be sworn in on Monday (Oct. 28) at 1 p.m. in Banff Town Hall. The annual organizational meeting follows at 2 p.m. and immediately after the first regular meeting of council begins at 2:30 p.m.
Among Banff councillors elected, Karlos received (unofficially) 1,316 votes, DiManno 1,310, Standish 1,094, Canning 1,037, Olver 930 and Christensen 879.
Incumbent school board trustees Kim Bater and Arlene Rheaume were acclaimed in the Canadian Rockies Regional School Division No.2 – Banff Ward. In Canmore, Carol Picard received 1,680 votes, with Leanne McKeown and Liz Baker receiving 1,144 and 770, respectively.
These are the unofficial results of the election. Official results will be released by the returning officer at noon on October 25, 2013.
