Rob Martin scores mayoral win in Colwood

Election Night news ~ by Mary P Brooke

Saturday, October 20 ~ COLWOOD.  Rob Martin is now mayor-elect of the City of Colwood. A two-term councillor, he beat out two-term incumbent Carol Hamilton with 2,348 votes (57.4% of 4,089 votes cast) compared to Carol Hamilton’s 1,694 votes (41.4%).

It took what seemed like a long while for the votes to be tallied, while many of the candidates, along with supporters and media waited in council chambers where voting had taken place 8 am to 8 pm today October 20. There was the business of combining vote tallies from the two advance polls (October 10 and 17) into the October 20 general election day ballot count.

Winning the six seats on council were (read out by the Chief Electoral Officer in alphabetical order): Michael Baxter (1,875 votes), Cynthia Day (1,928 votes), Dean Jantzen (2,646 votes), Doug Kobayashi (2,703 votes), Gordie Logan (1,775 votes), and Stewart Parkinson (1,767 votes). Day and Logan are returning to council; the other four councillors are new not only to Colwood council but to elected office.

What was Rob Martin’s road to success? “I was actually listening in the community,” he said about his door-knocking and public events during the campaign. “The community is motivated to move forward,” he told West Shore Voice News shortly after the votes were announced.

Martin sees that “development needs to happen in a timely manner”. He says “that’s going to be the significant change”.

“It’s not just that we’re ‘open for business’ but we are ‘coming for business’ to be partners,” says Martin. He says the community will see that in the first six months of his 2018-2022 term.

“Council is ready to move forward,” says mayor-elect Martin. He describes his new Council as “diverse” which is “exactly what I was looking for”.  He says his council will have fulsome discussions that cover the spectrum and hear all opinions, and that a respectful process will produce better decisions.

The most important turning point for Martin during the campaign was the October 2 Colwood All Candidates forum where there was public engagement and he got out his messaging about his intention to bring commercial development to Colwood.

Afterward, at a local restaurant, outgoing Mayor Carol Hamilton told West Shore Voice News that she is proud of Colwood’s accomplishments as achieved while she’s been mayor for seven years. She hopes the Official Community Plan (OCP) won’t be undone. The councillor who took the lead on the OCP (Jason Nault) was not re-elected.