Barb Desjardins will keep her seat as mayor of Esquimalt, beating challenger Sonya Gracey by 475 votes.
“I am so honoured to again have the confidence of the community of Esquimalt … Sonya was a first-rate challenger and I’m hopeful she’ll be a part of something going forward,” Desjardins said.
Desjardins took her seat with 1,908 votes (more than 56 per cent) while Gracey had 1,433.
“I feel disappointed but overall I feel so grateful that I have had such an amazing opportunity to run for mayor in this incredible community. We ran a positive, people-powered campaign and we raised a lot of important issues. We gave people a choice in this election,” Gracey said.
Joining Desjardins on council will be Duncan Cavens with 2,441 votes, followed by Tim Morrison with 2,326 votes, Darlene Rotchford with 2,322 votes, Andrea Boardman with 2,320, Jacob Helliwell with 2,315 and Ken Armour with 2,016.
Chris Munkacsi missed the mark with 1,820 votes.
Civic Info BC is reporting 3,373 total ballots cast. Esquimalt has an estimated 14,294 eligible voters.
In 2018, according to Civic Info BC, the estimated eligible voter turnout for the Township of Esquimalt was 29.9 per cent, which was 5.8 per cent lower than the average B.C. municipal turnout of 35.6 per cent.
Desjardins won in 2018 with more than 70 per cent of the vote.
READ MORE: 2022 Election Coverage
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