Council Victory!

Election results validate incumbent performance
By Roszan Holmen - Saanich News - November 19, 2008

Leonard returns as mayor; Murdock and Gerrard replace Ngai, Gillespie

Voters got their first opportunity to rate their mayor's performance at the polls since 1999 on Saturday and results indicate a decided but not resounding grade of approval for Frank Leonard.

A jittery group of council candidates gathered around Leonard as he wrote the final tallies on a white board about one hour after the polls closed. With 11,972 votes, Leonard beat his opponent Harald Wolf by more than 7,000 votes.

"It's quite an honour," Leonard said. "It's quite rare to get a fifth term in office anywhere ... I feel people have passed judgment on what I've done over the past 12 years and said, 'yep, keep up the good work.'"

Wolf, however, also claims victory from the result. "I'm very happy," said Wolf from his home on Monday. Despite having no political background and being unknown in the community before his campaign began, he won almost a third of the 17,240 votes.

"It was more than I set out to garner," said Wolf, who said he ran to get "some new ideas out there" and to make sure Leonard wasn't acclaimed as mayor for a third time.

Incumbents Susan Brice, Leif Wergeland, Wayne Hunter and newcomer Paul Gerrard joined Leonard at Elk Lake restaurant on election night and cheered each others election.
Gerrard, who just missed being elected in 2005, came in eighth place in this election, winning the last seat on council.

"One is as good as eight," said Gerrard of his placement. "I'm on and that's what counts."
Also re-elected but not at the gathering were incumbents Vic Derman, Vicki Sanders, Judy Brownoff and newcomer Dean Murdock.

At 27, Murdock is at least half the age of the other councillors. "I think (voters) recognized that I would represent a different perspective as a young person," said Murdock, who also ran for council in 2002. "Elections are about the future and mine is a future that hopefully will be in Saanich for a long time."

Brownoff stole the night as most popular councillor, winning 11,342 votes.

"I'm excited because I think what the voters said was they don't like slates," she said of the candidates who campaigned as a block, endorsed by the mayor.

With the exception of Brice, those not a part of this group generally performed better at the polls, Brownoff said, pointing to herself, Derman, Sanders and Murdock.
Chosen to represent Saanich on the board of directors for the Capital Regional District were Brice, Derman, Brownoff and Wergeland.

The candidates who didn't make the cut were Patrick Chénier (6,423 votes), Robert Wickson (6,970 votes) and Victor Hughes (2,726 votes).

Twenty-one per cent of those eligible voted in the 2008 election, compared to 19 per cent in 2005.

Here's who was elected to council:
• Judy Brownoff, with 11,342 votes,
• Susan Brice, with 11,276 votes,
• Vic Derman, with 10,805 votes,
• Vicki Sanders, with 10,418,
• Leif Wergeland, with 9,860,
• Dean Murdock, with 9,079,
• Wayne Hunter, with 9,031,
• Paul Gerrard, with 8,474.