It was a mixed bag of emotions over at James Crosty headquarters on election night.
The two-time candidate was calm and collected despite placing third in the city’s mayoral race with 1,345 votes – more than 4,000 votes back from Wayne Wright and Jonathan Cote.
“You can only do this so many times before you have to say, ‘It’s difficult to win in a labour town.’ We knew that from the outgoing thing,” Crosty said as the results started coming in.
Crosty’s initial thinking that the race between Wright and Cote would result in a split that would work to his benefit, didn’t pan out.
This campaign has been a positive experience for Crosty, who first ran for mayor of New Westminster three years ago. He credits the change to his battle with prostate cancer and having to care for his partner’s mother.
“I had a one year battle on that and I’m two years cancer free,” he said. “I call it a shotgun at your head. All of the sudden you realize you just can’t hold on to the past, you can only do what you can do today.
“The election before I was getting scowls and dirty looks because I was the only really opposing Wayne (Wright) and he was the darling at the time,” he said.
This time around, Crosty had a different strategy – he put forward specific platform ideas, including the Stormont connector, a women’s commission and synchronized streetlights.
But it seems that wasn’t enough.
“I think we’re headed down a very serious path with all district labour council candidates and that’s another reason why it would be difficult to run in this city again,” he said.
When asked if Crosty had any advice for Jonathan Cote, the new mayor-elect, he replied, “Good luck.”
