PORT McNEILL—Andrew Hory of Coal Harbour appeared to retain his spot on the Regional District of Mount Waddington Board of Directors by the slimmest of margins in Saturday's B.C. municipal elections, but his one-vote margin over challenger Patrick Horgan will likely be subject to a recount.
In unofficial results posted late Saturday night by Civic Info BC, Hory was credited with 117 votes to 116 for Horgan in their duel for Electoral Area C representative on the RDMW Board.
If his lead holds up, Hory will rejoin three other returning area directors who all ran unopposed. Heidi Soltau of Sointula (Area A), Phil Wainwright of Winter Harbour (Area B) and Dave Rushton of Woss (Area D) were all acclaimed for their board positions shortly after the close of nominations.
Each will serve a four-year term, the result of provincial legislation that increases the length of terms for municipal office from the three-year terms that had been in place for decades.
Results from across the province were posted online by Civic Info BC throughout Saturday night, though not all jurisdictions were available as of midnight. Neither the District of Port Hardy nor the Town of Port McNeill, both of which featured contested positions for mayor and council, had posted results by midnight.
Also unsettled Saturday night were the final spots on the School District 85 Board of Trustees, which was guaranteed at least one new member. Under restructuring of electoral areas approved by the province earlier this year, Port McNeill was to increase its membership to two members from one. Meanwhile, the outlying municipalities of Alert Bay and Port Alice, along with the the former Eastern Zone that included Malcolm Island, voted jointly for two trustee representatives. Previously, the three jurisdictions each had their own individual trustee on the board.
The three school board positions for Area 1, which comprises the 'North' zone of Port Hardy and Coal Harbour, were all filled by acclimation in October, with incumbents Jeff Field and Leightan Wishart of Port Hardy and Danita Schmidt of Coal Harbour all returning for another term on the Board.
Unofficial results were posted Saturday night for two North Island municipalities.
In Alert Bay, first-time candidate Dennis Buchanan was the clear front-runner among seven council candidates with 157 votes. He will join returning councillors Kane Gordon (133) and Wendy White (107), along with fellow first-time candidate Lisanne Granger (103) on the four-member council.
Michael Berry returns as mayor of the Village by acclimation.
Also returning by acclimation is Port Alice Mayor Jan Allen, who will work with a council that underwent something of a shakeup.
Newcomer Marnie Chase was the runaway top vote-getter for Port Alice Council with 230 votes. The other three successful candidates to the four-person council were closely bunched in balloting, with first-timers Christine Martin (175 votes) and Doug Worthington (165) bracketing returning councillor David Stewart (171).
Marc Brackett, along with Stewart the only incumbent running for council, finished a distant fifth with 142 votes and will not return.