The election is over now. The ballots have been counted and the results have been tallied.
Summerland’s council for the next four years consists of Toni Boot in the mayor’s chair, with Doug Holmes, Erin Trainer, Erin Carlson, Doug Patan, Richard Barkwill and Martin Van Alphen as councillors. Dave Stathers and Linda Van Alphen will represent Summerland on the Okanagan Skaha School Board.
This is what we have.
Not everyone is completely satisfied with the outcome of this election.
Some would have preferred different people elected to these roles. Some would have liked to see different platforms and personalities at the table.
However, while each candidate received some support at the polls, the election results are decisive.
Boot, who was elected mayor, received 607 more votes than mayoral candidate Janet Peake. Martin Van Alphen, the sixth candidate elected to a councillor role, had 411 more votes than seventh-place finisher Ron Kubek. And Linda Van Alphen, the second finisher among the school trustee candidates, had 237 more votes than Peter Waterman, the third-place finisher in that race.
Summerland has had some extremely close election races in past years, but not this year. The voters have spoken.
This is what we have.
Jeremy Denegar, chief elections officer for Summerland, said the 4,099 ballots cast in this election represent around 43 per cent of all eligible voters. This is much better than the provincial average of 36 per cent voter turnout, but it still is not all that good.
More than half of Summerland voters did not participate in this election. If they had voted, would the outcome have been different?
Over the next four-year term, the members of council and the school trustees will be called on to make some difficult choices. Some of their decisions will not be popular with all in the community.
But the mayor, councillors and trustees making those decisions are the ones who have been elected by Summerland voters.
This is what we have.
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