The Saanich election has seen a change in the mayoral seat, but incumbents who ran for council all got elected.
Fred Haynes, a one term councilor, unseated incumbent mayor Richard Atwell. Haynes received 47.9 per cent of the vote and Atwell received 33.7 per cent of the vote.
First time runner Rob Wickson received 17.3 per cent of the vote, and David Shebib received one per cent of the vote.
Haynes said in an interview with C-FAX that he is grateful that he has been chosen to serve as Saanich’s next mayor.
“It’s a wonderful delight; I am humbled by the result. It’s much stronger than some people thought it would be. We were anticipating a strong win,” Haynes said. “Four years on council we certainly did a lot of work. It was a wonderful council to work with.
“I look forward to working with the new council, it will be a wonderful experience with four new members,” Haynes said.
Atwell ran as part of a slate five candidates, and Karen Harper was the only member of the United for Saanich slate to be elected.
The four incumbent council candidates; Colin Plant, Susan Brice, Judy Brownoff and Karen Harper, were all re-elected. Newcomers to council are Rebecca Mersereau, Ned Taylor, Zac de Vries and Nathalie Chambers.
Mersereau ran in the 2014 election and the 2017 byelection. In both elections she was runner up, in this election she received the most votes of all the incoming councilors, receiving 18,416.
For full Saanich results, click here for our election page.