One thing’s for sure, there has been a huge change in the Cowichan Valley’s political scene following Saturday night’s municipal elections.
New mayors take up the reins at all three of the City of Duncan, the Municipality of North Cowichan, and the Town of Lake Cowichan. Councils in Duncan and North Cowichan are almost entirely new faces.
In the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s electoral areas there was less upheaval, but there are certainly some key new voices headed to the board table. In Area A, Blaise Salmon, who was acclaimed will take over. In Area C, Mike Wilson replaces Matteus Clement. And in Area G Lynne Smith, whose platform opposed many of the things previous director Mel Dorey (who did not run for re-election) did during his tenure, was voted in.
There will also be a new board chair, as incumbent North Cowichan mayor Jon Lefebure, who served in that post, and was defeated. That will be decided at the first meeting of the new board.
North Cowichan has only two returning councillors in Rob Douglas and Kate Marsh, while Duncan has only one, in Tom Duncan. For the new mayors, though Al Siebring and Michelle Staples both previously served as councillors, this will take some serious adjustment, and simply learning the rules for many of the newbies.
It’s always interesting to watch those newly elected as they come to realize that they are not a singular decision-maker. What they promised out on the campaign trail isn’t as easy to bring to fruition as they may have thought, as it takes a majority of councillors to be in agreement to make change. Compromises need to be made, and sometimes changes have to come in increments, rather than all at once. Councillors must explain their points of view and convince others.
While they ran against each other for election, now they must learn to work together for the good of the municipality. To date, our councils have been quite successful in doing so, avoiding the all-out dysfunction that has plagued places like Nanaimo.
We trust they will continue to work for us, rather than against each other.