Brenda Leigh has won her ninth election in a row as Area D Director.
She held off a challenge from Ron Chapman on Saturday to hold down the job, winning with 869 votes to Chapman’s 737. The results were posted after 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night on the Civic Info BC site.
Leigh won her first election back in 1993. She credits the fact that she ran an old-style door-to-door campaign as a key reason for her victory.
“I think that’s what made the difference,” she told the Mirror, adding that voters like to see the candidate on the doorstep.
She prefers this approach over using a high-tech methods, saying it helps her stay in touch with what issues concern people and gives her an idea of issues to address while in office.
She knows there are different concerns in the south end of the electoral district from the north end, but she says she campaigned from one end to the other to take them all in.
“I worked my legs off in this campaign,” she said. “I earned this.”
She conceded that Chapman gave her a real challenge on the campaign trail.
“My opposition ran a very competitive campaign,” she said.
Leigh also thanked the 30 or so volunteers she had to help with everything from acting as scrutineers to putting up signs.
The other area of the SRD up for contention was Cortes Island. Noba Anderson held on to her position as Area B Director, holding off a challenge from George Sirk, who had sat as regional district director previously. Anderson received 353 votes compared with 281 for Sirk, representing more than 55 per cent of the vote.
Cortes voters were also asked to decide on two non-binding referendum questions. The first asked them if they support the regional district preparing a bylaw to establish a first responder service for Cortes Island on the condition that the bylaw would require the approval of the electors. This was passed with 546 votes in favour and only 84 votes against.
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The second question asked if they supported the SRD preparing a bylaw to establish a service for funding community halls on Cortes Island on the condition that the bylaw would require the approval of the electors before it is adopted. This proposal received less support but still passed easily with 443 votes in favour and 191 opposed.
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The SRD can now move ahead with the bylaws to establish first responder service and the hall tax, though they will each need to go back before the electorate.