Every vote counts, just ask people who live in Peachland
YEAR IN REVIEW
One B.C. mayoral race was decided this year 10 days after voting ended.
And it was the random hand of chance, rather than the express will of voters, that saw Cindy Fortin return for a fouryear term as mayor of Peachland.
An extraordinary post-election saga played out in the town of 5,200 after it was determined both Fortin and top challenger Harry Gough had received 804 votes on Oct. 20.
In the event of such a statistically unlikely event, provincial law allows for a run-off election between the tied candidates.
But in 2017, in a little-noticed development, Peachland council adopted a bylaw stating a tied contest would be determined by drawing the winner’s name out of a box.
Likely no one at that meeting ever dreamed the bylaw would be used, much less the year after it was adopted.
The Peachland mayoral race was already shaping up to be a doozy, with four people challenging Fortin. She and some councillors had invoked the wrath of a section of the community by approving a five-storey project on Beach Avenue that was counter to the official community plan.
Gough, a popular retired supermarket owner, had been on council previously. On election night, he won by one vote. But a recount two days later found one ballot for Fortin that had not been read by the electronic vote tabulator, and the tie was declared.
On Oct. 29, provincial court judge Ellen Burdett arrived in Peachland, accompanied by four armed sheriffs, to oversee a judicial recount.
Burdett, Gough, Fortin, and members of the media looked on as town staff painstakingly went through all the ballots cast for mayor. No errors were found during the four hour process, setting the stage for a dramatic few seconds when the winner’s name would be drawn from a box.
The names of Gough and Fortin were written on pieces of paper and put into a box, which was then given a vigorous shaking by town staffer Polly Palmer. Burdett looked away, quickly reached in the box and withdrew Fortin’s name.
Fortin gasped and brought both hands to her face. Gough was the first to speak, offering her his congratulations.
Asked by reporters how she was feeling, Fortin said: “You’ll have to ask me once my heart stops fluttering. . . All I know is, I'm not a big drinker, but I need a glass of wine if anyone has any."
The peculiarities of the missing ballot on election night might have given Gough the opening to file a formal complaint about irregularities with the B.C. Supreme Court, but he quickly quashed that idea.
“Certainly not. I’m not going to waste anybody’s time on that,” he said. “I’m sure we're in capable hands with the council we've got.”