I lost the Langley City election, but moving forward with renewed focus to build a better Langley

Two years ago, I decided I would run for Langley City Council. Building an accessible community is something that I’m passionate about. I thought that by being on council, I could be a stronger voice to make my community better.

Running for council is one of the most demanding things that I’ve done in my life; I have a new respect for anyone who make a serious run for local government office.

What I want for Langley and our region are strong downtowns, great parks, and streets that work for people. This is a core part of my identity and is what gets me up in the morning. If you talk to any of my friends, they all know something about sustainable community design whether they wanted to or not.

Running for council, I laid out my vision of what I’d like Langley City to become, I became vulnerable. Would voters in Langley share my visions for the community?

As you many know, I missed getting a seat on Langley City Council by 71 votes. That is a good first run for a 31 year old in Langley City. It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the over 40 people that donated money to support my campaign, and the 15 people who contributed hundreds of hours of their time to get me this far.

Three incumbents put their names forward for six council seats: Jack Arnold, Dave Hall, and Gayle Martin. Running against an incumbent is a fool’s errand; I didn’t run to unseat any of these people. That left three seats available.

Rudy Storteboom, a previous councillor, narrowly missed retaining his seat on council in 2011. He decided to run for council again. Rudy is well known in the community and I knew he would have no trouble getting back on council again. This left two seats available.

Paul Albrecht, who ran in 2011, got a seat on Saturday. The rest of us running for council where first-timers. Val van den Broek, who worked in the Langley City Community Policing Office and was a running mate with Rudy, also got a seat.

There are two new voices on the council table. I’m excited to see what new perspectives they will bring to the council table.

Missing getting on council by only 71 votes means that there are many people in the community that share my vision. Over the weekend, my phone rang off the hook with people expressing their support and regret that I didn’t get on City Council. I’ve been humbled by the outpouring of support via email and on Facebook. It is because of this support that I feel compelled to run again in 2018. I know with the support of the community, I will close that gap of 71 votes and get a seat on council.

In the meantime, I will be focused on keeping council accountable and working towards building an accessible and walkable community. Sometimes they haven’t. I will work to support Downtown Langley any way that I can. I will also do all that I can to make sure that Brydon Lagoon is restored and we start investing more in our park system.

Regionally, I will do what I can do support a “Yes” result in the upcoming transit referendum. A “Yes” is needed to ensure the liveability of Metro Vancouver.

This will be my last post about the Langley City election, and starting tomorrow the blog will return to regularly scheduled programing.