City of Port Alberni Elections - By the Numbers since 1993

An Exciting Night

If you needed any proof that every vote is critical, you only need to look at the result from last night’s municipal election in the City of Port Alberni.

Thanks to archives of the Alberni Valley Times and on the City of Port Alberni website, I was able to to find numbers in elections going back to 1993.

Note that I wasn’t able to find complete results from the 2002 Election. If anyone has access to those numbers please do let me know. Also, the 2022 numbers are still preliminary, so may change slightly. Sources are at the bottom of the page. If you see any errors or omissions, please let me know in the comments.

Mayor of Port Alberni

This year’s election was the closest in at least the past 30 years with just 166 votes separating Mayor Sharie Minions and challenger Tom Verbrugge. It also appears to be the first time the winning mayoral candidate has only had one challenger since 1993.

Mayoral votes in City of Port Alberni since 1993.
Click for larger version

Note: 2002 had 3 candidates according to the AVTimes reports at the time, but no separated vote count was published so only two numbers appear here. It is also unclear whether the 1370 votes was for the runner-up, or for both challengers combined.

Year	Winner	All Challengers	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th
1993	Acclaimed	0
1996	Acclaimed	0
1999	3688	2486	2486
2002	2821	1370	1370
2005	2760	802	688	114
2008	2386	1387	1079	308
2011	2556	2154	1794	194	166
2014	1891	4016	1460	874	776	492	414	80
2018	2003	4203	1472	1181	872	523	155
2022	2524	2358	2358

Votes for Mayor since 1993 – Gillian Trumper was acclaimed in 1993 and 1996

Place	2022	2018	2014	2011	2008	2005	2002	1999	1996	1993
Winner	Sharie Minions	Sharie Minions	Mike Ruttan	John Douglas	Ken McRae	Ken McRae	Ken Mcrae	Gillian Trumper	Gillian Trumper	Gillian Trumper
2nd	Tom Vergrugge	Denis SauvÃ©	John Douglas	Ken McRae	Jen Fisher-Bradley	Jen Fisher-Bradley	Dusty Miller	Paul Carey
3rd		Mike Ruttan	Cindy Solda	Jen Fisher-Bradley	Jacques Savard	James Dominic King	Wayne Crowley
4th		John Douglas	Kevin Wright	Stacey Gaiga
5th		Kevin Wright	Hira Chopra
6th		Gary Robertson	Maurice Chopin

Mayor vote rank by name

Council

This year continues a historic trend of Port Alberni City Council vote being split between high vote-getters and a battle for the final two or three spots of six seats around the Mayor. This year was especially close with only 180 votes separating 4th and 8th places.

2002 is missing the middle candidates numbers as they were not published in the AVTimes at the time.

Votes for City Council by rank. Click for Larger.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
1993	2382	2334	1606	1486	1374	1350	1284	1166
1996	2471	2087	1875	1845	1780	1449	1394	1373
1999	4346	3831	3317	3274	2682	2670	2543	2286
2002	3057	2650				1906	1898
2005	2109	1967	1918	1819	1346	1286	1283	1294
2008	2629	2351	2327	2210	2123	1991	1652	1595
2011	2521	2314	2252	2155	1801	1778	1719	1620
2014	2748	2366	2159	2137	1736	1679	1598	1527
2018	3369	3153	2637	2277	2158	2122	1946	1626
2022	2222	2193	2083	1603	1576	1531	1479	1423

Votes by Rank since 1993

	2022	2018	2014	2011	2008	2005	2002	1999	1996	1993
1st	Charles Mealey	Debbie Haggard	Denis SauvÃ©	Cindy Solda	Cindy Solda	Cindy Solda	Hira Chopra	Donna Brett	Donna Brett	D.M. Brett
2nd	Debbie Haggard	Cindy Solda	Dan Washington	Rob Cole	John Douglas	Hira Chopra	Amanda Lord	Hira Chopra	John McNabb	H.A. Anderson
3rd	Cindy Solda	Dan Washington	Sharie Minions	Dan Washington	Jack McLeman	Ike Patterson	Cindy Solda	Dan Washington	Hira Chopra	K. Coupland
4th	Dustin Dame	Helen Poon	Ron Paulson	Jack McLeman	Ike Patterson	Charles Mealey	Charles Mealey	Ken McRae	George Colussi	J.C. McNabb
5th	John Douglas	Ron Paulson	Jack McLeman	Hira Chopra	Hira Chopra	Kenn Whiteman	Lyle Price	Chris Gibson	Tommy Simmons	H. Nederland
6th	Todd Patola	Ron Corbeil	Chris Alemany	Wendy Kerr	Kenn Whitemann	Jack McLeman	Ike Patterson	Charles Mealey	Jack Thornburgh	T.F. Simmons
7th	Ron Paulson	Hira Chopra	Wendy Kerr	David Oscienny	Gary Robertson	Anne Graboski	Jack McLeman	Don Walker	Rob Fioraso	E. Rusel
8th	Dan Washington	Seva Dhaliwal	Penny Cote	Angie Blake	Alice Schoffer	Paul Elder	?	Anne Grabowski	Leo Sorensen	F. Kutschera

Vote rank by name.

Turnout

Participation in municipal elections has varied widely over the past 10 elections spanning 29 years. After the hotly contested election of 1999 which came with the approval of the new Arena, turnout dropped from 57.5% in 1999 all the way dow to a low of 27.8% in 2005, nearly as low as 26% mark in 1996 when Gillian Trumper was acclaimed a second time. It recovered some in the following years to a high of 46.4% in 2014 but has now dropped again to just 33.3% of voters participating in the 2022 election.

It’s also worth noting that after a number of terms with eligible electors hovering around 13,500, this year we had more eligible electors in the City of Port Alberni than at any time since at least 1996 and possibly longer.

Nearly 15,000 people were eligible to vote in this year’s election.

How do we keep municipal electors engaged?

Turnout, Eligible Voters and Ballots Cast in Port Alberni since 1999

Year	Eligible	Ballots Cast	Percent
1993			29.5%
1996	12200	3169	26.0%
1999	10966	6307	57.5%
2002	10888	4966	45.6%
2005	13500	3753	27.8%
2008	13875	4067	29.3%
2011	13429	4770	35.5%
2014	12974	6019	46.4%
2018	13678	6240	45.6%
2022	14950	4985	33.3%

Perhaps one of the things that the results over the decades tell us is people come to vote in response to big issues, and a contentious mayoral competition. In that way, perhaps this election is an outlier.

Disclosure: I supported Mayor Minions in the past two elections.