It was the parents' election when it came to the school trustee race in New West.
First-time candidate Kelly Slade-Kerr led the race with more than 8,100 votes, surpassing the number of votes cast for the city's new mayor, Jonathan Cote.
Slade-Kerr credits the recent education dispute as the spark that lit the match for parent engagement in New West.
"I said the silver lining in this education dispute is going to be parent engagement in the election, and it's come true," she said Saturday night.
Slade-Kerr was among a handful of school trustee, council and mayoral candidates, along with a hundred or so supporters, family and friends gathered at city hall to watch the results of New West's 19 polling stations come in.
At times the tension was palpable, especially when it came to the neck-in-neck competition for the seventh trustee spot.
Independent candidate Jeremy Perry was in a heated battle with incumbents Michael Ewen and James Janzen for the final coveted spot. At one point, Perry trailed Janzen by less than 200 votes.
The final count for the preliminary results had Perry in eighth place with 4,278 votes, less than 940 votes behind Janzen in seventh place.
"I predicted a few weeks ago that I'd come in seventh or eighth, so I wasn't surprised that I predicted correctly," Perry told The Record.
"Those are fantastic results, they're amazing," he added. "It's not often you see a first-time candidate come in that strong, so I'm very pleased with those results."
Despite the loss, this isn't the last the community has seen of Perry, he said, adding folks shouldn't be surprised if he puts his name forward again in four years.
"I didn't join the community for the election, and I'm not leaving now that I didn't win," he said.
Meanwhile, incumbents Jonina Campbell, Ewen, Janzen, Casey Cook and MaryAnn Mortensen were re-elected to the school board, along with labour-endorsed candidate and first-timer Mark Gifford, who came fourth overall.
"It feels great," Gifford said of his win. "I'm really excited. I think we've got a great group of school trustees that have lots of work to do ahead of them."
Gifford, whose son attends Lord Kelvin Elementary School, said the campaign was his starting point and now it's time to get down to business, starting with engagement.
"As a rookie, campaigns are kind of a funny animal, it's a different kind of engagement," he said. "I'm really looking forward to strengthening that in the district."
Campbell, who topped the polls in 2011 during her first run at a school board seat, agreed and said she hopes the engagement seen during the campaign will continue over the next four years.
"We need to work really hard getting out there and getting our message across and communicating with the parents and the community and encouraging them to participate," Campbell said.
After the final poll result was reported, the new trustees made their way downtown to Jonathan Cote's campaign office to join in the festivities.
Mortensen and Cook, meanwhile, were at home celebrating with their families. Both incumbents were pleased with the results and looking forward to getting back to work.
"I don't think I ever felt like I left it really. It was a week," Mortensen laughed. "I've got stuff to read for Tuesday."
