City of Powell River’s electorate has spoken, in an interesting way.
Mirroring what took place in much of the province on municipal election day last weekend, where voters replaced dozens of incumbent mayors, local residents chose Ron Woznow as mayor over longtime city councillors CaroleAnn Leishman and Maggie Hathaway, and by a large margin.
Woznow was a well-known entity to voters, having run for the same position in 2018 and serving as president of Westview Ratepayers Association and Powell River Senior Citizens Association.
In contrast to other provincial results, voters decided to return all four current councillors who sought reelection back to the council table for another four years. So is it the status quo people are looking for or a new direction?
Rob Southcott, Jim Palm, Cindy Elliott and George Doubt all finished as top-five vote-getters in their bids for reelection, a strong indication of support for each.
Councillors-elect Earl Almeida and Trina Isakson join Woznow at the table as new faces with mandates to bring fresh perspectives to major issues such as housing, the new fire hall and a possible city renaming, to name a few of the challenging topics and portfolios all seven will face over the coming term.
Being a public servant is not for the faint of heart, and anyone who chooses to do so for the betterment of their community should be applauded. Unfortunately, that is not always the case, once decisions have to be made and those who feel their position is not supported resort to negative, and sometimes harmful comments.
It’s a fresh start for everyone, so before the inevitable knives come out, let’s give this new council what it deserves: respect for putting themselves out there in the first place, and time to get its feet wet.
As with any election result, the people get what they asked for. It’s up to the seven members of council to deliver, and they have four years to do so.
