BURST
It’s election day in Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam as voters head to the polls to choose who will lead them for the next four years.
For everything you need to know about how and when to vote in the Tri-Cities’ municipal election, click HERE .
If you’re still undecided on who to vote for, check out our preview story about the major issues and priorities within the Tri-Cities.
Then follow along our live-blog HERE throughout the day and night for the latest election day news from across the Metro Vancouver region, and check back here where we’ll keep this post updated all night with Tri-Cities election results and reaction.
Voters in the Tri-Cities area — one of Metro Vancouver’s fastest growing areas — will be deciding on a new mayor in Coquitlam today, and whether to keep incumbents in Port Moody and Port Coquitlam or go for someone different.
The Tri-Cities is an informal grouping of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. As the population soars, these cities face common challenges related to housing, traffic congestion and crime that mayoral candidates are campaigning to fix.
It’s a three-way race in Coquitlam to replace retiring mayor Richard Stewart, a stalwart who has served in the role for nearly two decades.
Will voters in Port Coquitlam stick with mayor Brad West, who went unchallenged in the last election, or choose one of the two local businessmen running against him?
And, it’s expected to be a heated battle in Port Moody, where the city’s first female mayor, Meghan Lahti, is being challenged by one-term city councillor Haven Lurbiecki.
The top issues in the smallest of the three cities are real estate development and congestion.
With a population of just over 39,000, and where the province has set housing targets , Port Moody is often bumper-to-bumper with traffic congestion. Here residents tend to be either for or against expanding that population.
While Lahti has favoured growth and development, Lubreicki has taken a stance against it, in particular the plan to build more residential towers.
City council earlier this year approved two of the city’s largest towers yet at 39 storeys. Lubriecki voted against the plan, which is to be built near the Moody Centre SkyTrain station.
Lahti said the plan will bring high-density development to SkyTrain stations and create community revitalization while Lubriecki argues it was fast-tracked without a dedicated community consultation process.
This campaign, Lahti has pledged to ease traffic congestion and build more seniors housing. Part of this plan includes widening the Barnet overpass and increasing lane capacity, and adding a rush-hour lane to St. Johns Street.
For the first time in Port Moody, a party is running a leader and a slate of candidates for councillor. Port Moody Voice, which Lubriecki heads, is the city’s first registered municipal political party. Core to its platform is opposition to the city’s 14-tower plan, which allows towers up to 40 storeys, expanding Rocky Point Park, and a referendum on highrise heights.
Running against West in Poco are: Connor Fesenmaier and Pasquale Zampieri. Fesenmaier is an automotive business consultant who’s running under a platform called Poco Forward. He’s pledged to fix the city’s traffic woes, in particular rail-crossing bottlenecks, poor signal timing, narrow or dysfunctional intersections, school-zone safety and dangerous conflict points.
West has been campaigning on keeping Port Coquitlam affordable by keeping taxes low and funding parks and sport facilities, while also promising to maintain infrastructure and address safety issues like vandalism.
Zampieri, who owns Sabby’s Towing Inc., has critiqued council for increasing property taxes when campaigning not to, and says he would bring more transparency to voters on why municipal property taxes continue to increase. His priorities are traffic congestion, infrastructure, affordability, responsible spending, more housing and safe neighbourhoods.
In Coquitlam, the largest of the three cities with a population of nearly 179,000, there are two councillors and a civic servant running. They include: Craig Hodge, a city councillor since 2011; public sector strategist Madhavee Inamdar; and two-time councillor Trish Mandewo.
Hodge and Mandewo, who are longtime colleagues of Stewart, have both been endorsed by Stewart.
Inamdar has pledged to demand below-market rental housing from developers, to reduce traffic bottlenecks and preserve green spaces. She also says there needs to be more budget transparency at city hall to ensure tax dollars are funding community services.
Mandewo, a former Union of B.C. Municipalities president, said her priorities are growth without raising taxes, updating infrastructure, green spaces and safer neighbourhoods, while Hodge is pushing for a crackdown on crime, as gang shootings have increased in the fast-growing city.
For more on the civic elections in Metro Vancouver, follow our coverage of the following municipalities:
• Vancouver
• Burnaby
• Delta
• Langley: City and Township
• New Westminster
• North Shore
• Richmond
• Surrey
• Tri-Cities: Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam