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TWO NEW FACES ON CITY COUNCIL
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WHY MOVEMBER MATTERS SO MUCH
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Wednesday, November 19, 2014 NewsLeader A1
PLATINUM AWARDS, page IN PHOTOS
WEDNESDAY
NOVEMBER 19 2014 www.newwestnewsleader.com Amber Anderson’s compassionate work filling stomachs and transforming lives has earned her recognition as this year’s Citizen of the Year. See Page A10
New face tops SD40 vote Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
New Westminster’s new mayor, Jonathan Coté, is congratulated by other victorious candidates for council and school board. All of the candidates endorsed by the District Labour Council were elected Saturday.
Coté ends Wright’s four-term run Grant Granger
ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com
New Westminster residents love to throw out the old and bring in the new when they renovate their homes. On Saturday, they did a little updating to their mayor’s chair. They had been comfortable with the chair’s occupant for the last 12 years, but decided to exchange him for a newer model, abruptly putting an end to the Wayne Wright era at New Westminster city hall in favour of the Jonathan Coté model. The mayor’s race was expected to
be a photo finish too close to call. thought it would be a lot closer than It was far from it. it was. I was convinced at the start The victory for Coté, 35, ends a of the campaign we were behind, four-term reign for Wright, but we ran the hardest 71, as mayor of New working campaign this city Westminster. Not only that, has ever seen.” but Coté will be leading Coté spent a lot of time a council made up of six promoting himself and candidates who were all, policies on social media. like him, backed by the New He also did a lot of door WRIGHT Westminster and District knocking. He bragged his Labour Council. pedometer showed he did “I had a pretty good weekend,” more than one million steps. understated Coté on Monday. Coté announced his candidacy “We’d known we’d run a really good in June and hit the ground running campaign and were optimistic but I with a fancy website.
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“We started early. This type of campaign is hard to create overnight,” said Coté. “Even though there was not much happening during the summer we were doing prep work and it was full steam ahead in the fall.” It all paid off Saturday evening when he took an early lead he never relinquished. When the first poll popped up on the screen at city hall, Coté had the lead with 72 votes to Wright’s 54. It was a differential that only improved as the night wore on and Coté cruised to an easy victory.
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Kelly Slade-Kerr and her two daughters couldn’t stop beaming as the results rolled in Saturday night. The first-time candidate for New Westminster school trustee didn’t just get elected, she topped the polls beating out the five incumbents who all retained their seats. “It’s pretty exciting. Not in a million years,” said SladeKerr, an employment lawyer, when asked if she thought she’d be the top vote getter with a whopping 8,128. “I got more votes than the mayor!” Earlier this year, Slade-Kerr helped found Parents For Public Education in New Westminster (P4PE), but relinquished her role with them when she decided to run. The group’s motivation was to get more parents involved and to elect trustees with new skill sets. “I’m so happy to see the number of ballots cast in the school trustee election,” she said. “We have an excellent board. I’m excited to work with them. There are great things in store for School District 40.” Please see NEW TRUSTEES, A7