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The New Westminster school board is going to look a lot different come November.

The New Westminster and District Labour Council-endorsed Team Cote swept to power again, with one Progressive and one independent squeaking onto school board

The faces of New Westminster city council and school board have most decidedly changed.

It appears to have been the Dream Team for Cote. With 16 of 20 polls reporting back, every single candidate is so far making it into office.

It’s just past 8 p.m. and the polls have closed in New Westminster – now the waiting begins. Once the advanced polls and special polls results are counted, counts from today’s 16 polling stations will start to be released.

Live from New Westminster – it’s Saturday night! OK, it doesn’t have the same ring to it as the NBC comedy institution, but it’s still going to be exciting.

Candidates vying for seats on New Westminster city council and school board are in the home stretch. Door knocking, phone calls and sign waving are ways local candidates are reaching out to voters in the dying days of the campaign.

Walk around the streets of New Westminster, ride its buses, eat in its restaurants, and, wherever you go, you’ll see the faces of diversity.

So why does diversity matter? For Sanjay Jeram, a senior lecturer in political science at Simon Fraser University, the arguments in favour of more diversity among elected officials can be divided into two distinct pieces: policy and philosophy.

If the City of New Westminster wants to expand voting opportunities in the civic election that’s up to city council – but it won’t happen in time for this year’s civic election.