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Terri O’Keeffe tops the polls in Sidney

Former mayor Steve Price loses bid for council seat
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The election results are in for Sidney. (Wolf Depner/News Staff)

Coun. Terri O’Keeffe said she feels humbled after topping the polls in Sidney, where voters largely favoured the status quo.

“I’m humbled and pleased that the residents of Sidney have that much faith and I hope that I can live up to their expectations,” she said. O’Keeffe topped the polls with 2,155 votes. When asked about expectations, O’Keeffe pointed to a number of issues, with housing leading the way.

“A big part of that is going through our OCP, which we have just updated and are making sure that the changes that we want in there, that we bring those to life by making amendments to the zoning bylaw,” she said. She would like to see policies that encourage developers to bring housing meeting the needs of young families as well as seniors to Sidney. “To me, those are the biggest things,” she said. “There is a lot, but those are the most critical.”

The other three incumbents running in this year’s election — Sara Duncan (2,140 votes), Chad Rintoul (2,093 votes) and Scott Garnett (1,814) — will also return to the council table. Two non-incumbents — Steve Duck with 1,751 and Richard Novek with 1,489 — will join that quartet.

Overall, Sidney’s new council will see five returning faces from the previous one, counting Mayor Cliff McNeil-Smith who won by acclamation. Not joining council will be former mayor Steve Price, who finished with 687 votes. Eric Diller with 1,300 and Cam McLennan with 1,024 also failed in their bids.

Voter turnout was 27.5 per cent in Sidney, with 2,863 ballots cast this election, well below the 4,692 (48 per cent) who voted in 2018.

RELATED: Voters in North Saanich, Central Saanich and Sidney face different environments


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wolfgang.depner@peninsulanewsreview.com



Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
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