One council hopeful drops out of New West race

Voters will have one less name to consider when they head to the polls on Nov. 15.

“We had one candidate drop out,” said Isabell Hadford, the city’s chief election officer. “For council it was Heather Boersma. She dropped out before the close of nominations.”

All totalled, New Westminster residents will have to choose between four mayoral, 21 councillor and 13 school trustee candidates.

New West introduces electronic voters’ list

If you were planning on voting more than once in the upcoming civic election, you’d better think twice.

In recent elections, a handful of people have voiced concerns that voters could cast votes more than once. As people voted, election staff crossed their names off a massive paper voters’ list.

But that’s all about to change.

“It’s an in-house system that has been developed by the city. It’s an electronic voters’ list, rather than paper,” said Isabell Hadford, the city’s chief election officer.

If someone votes at one voter station, it will be recorded that they voted.

“If they try to vote at another polling station, it will show up that they have voted before,” Hadford said. “It was a concern expressed by the city. That is why we have decided to implement it this year.”

Run early and often?

New West council candidate Raj Gupta may be the first multi-municipal candidate in recent memory.

Along with seeking a councillor seat in New Westminster, the Vancouver resident is also running for mayor in Burnaby. He was a B.C. Conservative Party candidate in Vancouver-Kingsway in the 2013 provincial election. Gupta, who was a mechanical engineer in India, has lived in Vancouver since 1974 and worked as a Realtor for 24 years.

Cote releases platforms

Mayoral candidate Jonathan X. Cote is living up to his mayoral plan to focus on public policy.

The three-term city councillor said he has a strong interest in public policy, something that shapes everything from environment to social issues. As party of his bid to become mayor, Cote’s campaign is focusing on four themes: building a strong local economy; building a transportation system that works; building a city that cares; and building a healthy, happy and vibrant community.

To date, he’s released two of four campaign platforms, the first dealing with transportation and the other addressing the economy.

Cote recently completed the urban studies master program at Simon Fraser University with a focus on land-use and transportation planning.
For details about Cote’s platform, watch for an upcoming profile in The Record or visit votecote.ca.

Candidates support football program

Events can take on a life of their own during election season.

Don Hauka, who is publicizing the Hyack Tailgate Auction, said many of the candidates in this year’s civic election attended last weekend’s big event, which turned into an unofficial all-candidates meeting. The annual event raises funds for the high school and community football programs’ costs.

“It’s become almost like an all-candidates meeting,” he said. “We put out an invitation to say you may be opponents on the hustings but I am sure you’re all on the same team when it comes to supporting junior football or community football. Well, gosh darn didn’t they bite.”

Meet with Mary

Council candidate Mary Trentadue is offering 32 Minutes With Mary in the lead-up to the civic election.

Trentadue will hold 32 Minutes With Mary meetings in various locations in the city. She states that Trentadue means 32 in Italian and 32 Books was the name of her award-wining bookstore in North Vancouver.

“In my previous experience as a city councillor, I enjoyed the opportunity to engage people on shared values and priorities the most,” she said in a press release. “I have been knocking on literally hundred of doors over the past weeks, but I want to engage those that I haven’t yet been able to connect with. As a mother of a young son and a business owner, I believe I bring a unique perspective and I look forward to sharing my ideas and hearing those of others.”

For more details on where and when you’ll be able to meet with Trentadue, drop her an email at [email protected].

Crosty wants his name back

Mayoral candidate James Crosty has secured his name on one web domain – and is keeping an eye on another.

In his 2013 bid to be New Westminster’s MLA, Crosty contacted Elections B.C., the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) and police after someone else registered jamescrosty.com and jamescrosty.ca. He believes someone obtained the domains to misrepresent him on the Internet, with the goal of negatively affecting his campaign.

Now running for mayor, Crosty has been able to secure the jamescrosty.ca domain.

“With a private investigator and the CIRA, we were able to deny this person re-registering the name as they had initially done offshore,” he said in a press release. “The CIRA denied the renewal of this domain to the person(s) responsible which resulted in private investigator securing jhamescrosty.ca for Crosty himself. Unfortunately, obtaining jamescrosty.com has proven more challenging.”

Crosty said it appears the person who secured the domains appears to be local. He said the jamescrosty.com site is being tracked so he’ll be informed if it’s reactivated and he’ll have the ability to shut it down and identify the person(s) responsible.

For more news from the campaign trail, see www.royalcityrecord.com and check under the #ELXNNW tab, or search #elxnnw on Twitter. You can also follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RoyalCityRecord.