Ivan Brooker topped the polls in the race for Cochrane mayor Oct. 21, winning 1,856 votes in the municipal election.
And already the new mayor-elect is ready to get down to business.
“My first goal as mayor is to take the opportunity over the orientation days to sit down with the councillors, discuss ideas and line-up a series of goals to achieve,” said Brooker.
The night of the election, Brooker was surrounded by family. As the results were released, his family and friends surrounded him, shouting and jumping, he said.
“I’m super thrilled for him,” said Tracy Smyth, Brooker’s fiancé. “He worked so hard. It was exciting to witness all the hard work pay off.”
“I’m pretty excited to get started,” said Brooker. “It’s a good group of people. There are some of us with previous experience on council along with a couple who have none. A lot of ideas will be thrown around.”
While he admitted to being disappointed in the low voter turnout — only 4,543 of Cochrane’s 13,789 eligible voters participated — Brooker said he was pleased with the results.
“There was no incumbent mayor and there were going to be a number of new faces on council regardless of who showed up to vote,” he said.
“Obviously, I’m happy with how it turned out,” he added with a laugh.
The mayor and new council will be sworn in Oct. 28 in the Cochrane RancheHouse’s Council Chambers.
Tara McFadden was re-elected as a councillor for the Town of Cochrane Oct. 21. This marks her third term as a leader for the community.
A dedicated proponent for community engagement, McFadden told the Eagle in September that she hopes to spend the next four years growing the town’s community engagement initiatives.
One of her engagement ideas is the development of a ‘citizen jury’ — a collection of residents who are presented with the same in-depth information given to council. The findings from the residents’ analysis would give the mayor and council an added insight into the minds of taxpayers
She was out of town, but that didn’t stop Gaynor Levisky from keeping a close watch on the Cochrane polls the night of Oct. 21.
In Vancouver for a previous commitment, Levisky followed the count with help from the friends and families. Her patience was tested between delayed messages, she laughed, but she was elated when the election results were released.
“This is a big responsibility, and it’s one that I’m not going to take lightly,” said Levisky over the phone from Vancouver. “I’m blessed, honoured and excited to be in this position.”
Her first order of business — other than completing the orientation — is to connect with those residents who contacted her with their thoughts and concerns regarding the community.
“Honestly, I didn’t believe Cochrane could have gone wrong, regardless of how they voted,” said Levisky. “There was a rich, diverse group of candidates to choose from. I’m honoured to be able to work with a great team.”
No stranger to municipal politics, Mary Lou Davis will once again be championing the concerns of Cochranites, as she gets ready for four years as a town councilor. Davis sat on council from 2004-07.
“I’m very impressed that so may people put so much trust in me and I’m very grateful,” said an overwhelmed Davis. “My first item will be the road situation - traffic, accessibility, road congestion…it seems to me that 80 per cent of the people I talked to were concerned about that.”
Davis, who said she is looking forward to working with her fellow councillors and mayor, feels that this group is a good mix of age and experience.
She said she will be encouraging Cochranites to stop by Bentleys Books to discuss their concerns over coffee and is hoping this public engagement approach will be shared by her fellow councillors; she will be making herself available for one-on-one meetings with citizens.
Davis added that perhaps more face-to-face interaction between town administration and residents might encourage a better turnout in the next election.
Thrilled to be elected for a second consecutive term, councilor Toews will also be making communication between town council and the public his top priority.
“I want to establish improved communication between council administration and the public – I think for all of our upcoming projects, that’s something we can improve on.”
Toews said after a frustrating first term in office, he feels his business background and enthusiasm for Cochrane will be of great assistance to some of the current issues and projects, including roads and transportation, the aquatic centre and curling rink.
On his new co-councillors: “Mary Lou knows the ropes, Morgan will bring enthusiasm and Gaynor will bring her business background…I’m hoping this administration will be more business-minded and about the bottom line.” He said that while he and newly elected mayor, Ivan Brooker, may not agree on every issue, they work very well together.
While Toews hopes this council will reach out to Cochranites and inspire a larger voter turnout in the next election, he said people need to take advantage of having the fortune to live in a country where it is their right to vote and where plentiful opportunities, such as early voting, are made available.
Back for his fifth term in office, councillor Watson said first priority will be “getting to know my fellow councillors and developing a comfort level with them”, as well as getting organized for the first budget meeting on Nov. 23.
Even though Watson has already served four terms (not consecutive) as a councillor, he said there is a vulnerability that exists when you put yourself out there to be judged by your fellow citizens.
“My wife went right to my name for me and read it (off the white board, at the Cochrane RancheHouse) right away…I wanted to know if (Cochrane) wanted me back. I never felt I was a shoe-in. We had 13 candidates and I had a lot of respect for all my fellow candidates, and I had to imagine the community did as well.”
Watson said there a couple of different ways to look at the poor voter turnout of 33 per cent. He suggested one possibility was that the community felt fairly comfortable with the council – especially considering that all the incumbents were in the running; another possibility is that with the tremendous growth in Cochrane, new residents don’t feel engaged with the town yet. The councillor suggested looking at putting more polling stations in areas outside of the Cochrane core (Sunset Ridge, Fireside) might help bring out more voters in the next election.
This is the 23-year-old’s first term as a councilman and already Nagel said he’s losing sleep.
“It’s a pretty big shock and I’m really excited,” he said with a laugh. “I can hardly sleep at night.
“I knew I had a chance, but I didn’t think I’d win.”
Nagel said he’s looking forward to sitting down with the new mayor and the rest of the town council. He said the incoming office boasts a diverse range of people — much like that of Cochrane’s population.
“I’ve gotten to know a lot about the other councillors and the mayor over the past few weeks,” he said. “We all agree on some key issues, but I think we will all balance each other well. And Brooker is going to do a great job.”
Already Nagel is looking for ways to implement the concepts he was promoting during his candidacy. He said it’s important to him to make sure he makes good on his promises to Cochrane.
“I plan on sticking to my guns,” he said.
