Brian Bogle has been elected Castlegar’s next mayor.
The incumbent councillor won a landslide victory, with 70 per cent of the vote, over fellow councillor Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff and Grand Forks resident Donald Pharand.
Bogle had 1,431 votes compared to 556 for Heaton-Sherstobitoff and 32 for Pharand.
The council will include only two incumbents, Darcy Bell and Cherryl MacLeod. They will be joined by newcomers Merrick Zemp, Miguel Godau, Chance Boruck, and Gordon Malcolm. Incumbents Sandy Bojechko and Shirley Falstead both failed to win re-election. Heather Fancy also missed the cut.
The turnout was 32 per cent, with 2,039 ballots cast out of 6,330 registered voters.
Bogle said he was “very surprised and pleased” with the level of support he received, adding that he told everyone who asked him how he felt about his chances that he was “cautiously optimistic.”
“It’s hard to tell. It’s like a school test, right? You never know until you get the results,” he said.
“Everyone ran a very good campaign. They were very respectful and proactive and we simply talked about the issues as we see them. I think that was excellent. I thank Sue for running such a good campaign and for her 15 years of service to Castlegar. I think she always did a good job at the table and represented Castlegar very well.”
The retired Safeway manager said he is looking forward to meeting with the new council soon to hear about their vision for the city and to discuss strategic planning. Of the new faces on council, Bogle said he knew Godau and Malcolm previously. He has since met with Zemp and spoken with Boruck at a couple of events.
He said the learning curve for a new councillor is steep, but he is confident they will be up to the task. Bogle, who was first elected to council in a 2021 by-election and then re-elected in 2022, said it took him about six months to feel comfortable at the council table, but city staff do a good job of bringing everyone up to speed through an orientation process.
One of the key projects on the immediate horizon is the proposed addition of a second sheet of ice and a walking track to the Castlegar recreation complex. Assuming the regional district receives an acceptable bid, city and Area J residents are expected to vote in February. The vote was originally slated to coincide with Saturday’s election, but was pushed back.
Both rural Castlegar regional district areas will have new directors as well: Chris Popoff was acclaimed to replace the retiring Andy Davidoff in Area I and former director Gord Zaitsoff defeated Henny Hanegraaf in Area J.
Bogle said other issues that face Castlegar are similar to ones facing many other communities, namely municipal infrastructure, including the sewage treatment plant, as well as general affordability.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty in the economy right now with tariffs, so we’re going to have our work cut out for us for sure,” he said.
