Saturday July 12, 2025 | SOOKE, BC [Posted at 9:50 pm | Updated 10:06 pm | Updated 8:51 am & 1:10 pm on July 13, 2025; updated July 14, 2025]
Political news analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Voters in the District of Sooke have chosen their newest municipal councillor.
The by-election to fill one Council seat was held today Saturday July 12 (voting place at 8 am to 8 pm at Edward Milne Community School).
Advance voting was held on July 2 and 9 (and on July 3 by special ballot for residents of Ayre Manor).
“Voting is a key part of our democracy. Your participation helps ensure local decisions reflect current community needs and values,” the District posted on their website this morning.
Herb Haldane elected:
As per the election results on the District of Sooke website after 8 pm, the winner of the by-election is Herb Haldane. He won with 35.3% of the votes.
Haldane will now sit on council through to the next municipal election in October 2026.
It was a hotly contested race among seven candidates and the top results were close. Haldane got 732 votes. Helen Ritts came in second with 709, and Katherine Strongwind came in a strong third with 432.
Fifty-four percent of the votes in the District of Sooke by-election were cast on election day today. Advance voting saw 44% of the votes cast.
- Shaun Burns – 41
- Nick Dickinson-Wilde – 72
- Herb Haldane – 732
- Nathan McKeown – 30
- Elaine Price – 55
- Helen Ritts – 709
- Katherine Strongwind – 432
Strong turnout:
The by-election turnout of 2,071 voters represents about 12.2% of the population of Sooke (estimated at 16,992 in 2025), or about 20.7% of registered voters (estimating that as about 10,000 adults in Sooke).
Three top contenders garnered distinct support.
For a summer by-election (when many people are presumably focused on vacations or time-off) the turnout might be considered substantive.
Haldane’s return:
This result for Haldane comes after 11 years in the political ‘wilderness’. He ran for Mayor in 2014 but lost, and ran again for council in 2018 and 2022.
In 2024 he started out as a BC United candidate before that entire political party was dropped from the provincial race. Over the last decade he has continued to run his housing construction business based in Sooke.
At least a few of the by-election candidates have indicated in recent weeks that they may run in the full municipal election in October 2026, including Katherine Strongwind (who had helped on Maja Tait’s federal campaign) and Helen Ritts (who has merged her way into Sooke through district committee work and the tourism sector).
Council impact:
Bringing Haldane back to Sooke council (he served on council in 2008-2011 and 2011-2014) saw support from the Sooke ‘old guard’ coming out to support his campaign. Former Sooke Mayor Janet Evans and former Sooke Councillor and MLA Rick Kasper were out helping with sign-waving in Herb’s campaign.
Haldane will now join the other long-term District of Sooke councillors on council: Jeff Bateman, Al Beddows, Megan McMath, Kevin Pearson, and Tony St-Pierre.
There may be more split votes on council now, as Bateman and St-Pierre lean left or progressive, while Pearson tends to be more conservative but is also open-minded. Beddows is steady and leans to broader community interests. McMath is not there enough for anyone to know her stance on things. Mayor Maja Tait leads from the centre.
Catching up from a year of change:
It’s been nearly a year since Dana Lajeunesse stepped away from his seat on District of Sooke Council in order to run in the Fall 2024 provincial election; Lajeunesse was sworn in as the MLA for Juan de Fuca-Malahat in November 2024.
As well, Sooke Mayor Maja Tait was away from council chambers at various times over the past year as she prepared for and ran her federal NDP election campaign in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke. The Liberal candidate won that election on April 28, 2025 and two days later Tait went back to the Sooke mayor’s seat that she has held since 2014.
Broader leanings to conservative values?
In the last two municipal by-elections on south Vancouver Island, municipal voters have perhaps been looking for not just experienced councillors but also showing a shift toward conservative approaches (both Haldane in Sooke and Meagan Brame in Esquimalt had been BC United provincial candidates in 2024).
Even Prime Minister Mark Carney who leads the Liberal Party is governing like a progressive conservative.
===== RELATED:
- Herb Haldane gives Sooke Council another try (July 1, 2025)
- Seven candidates vie for council seat in Sooke by-election (June 7, 2025)
- District of Sooke by-election coming up July 12 (May 20, 2025)
- NDP candidate Maja Tait enters federal politics during socioeconomic shift (March 27, 2025)
- MLA-elect Dana Lajeunesse resigns from District of Sooke council (November 8, 2024)
- NEWS SECTIONS: SOOKE | MUNICIPAL ELECTION 2026 | BY-ELECTIONS | EVENTS