The civic election polls are now closed.
Staff at the Cowichan Valley Citizen, Lake Cowichan Gazette, and Chemainus Chronicle are out, bringing you full live coverage on our website, Facebook and Twitter.
8 p.m. – Polls are now closed
The polls are now closed, Cowichan. And now we wait.
— Cowichan Citizen (@CowichanCitizen) October 21, 2018
8:17 p.m. – Results still being tabulated in the Cowichan region
8:30 p.m. — Sierra Acton is leading Bill Savage in Area B (Shawnigan Lake) 680 votes to 345
8:30 p.m. — Lori Iannidinaro is leading Dave Fast in Area D (Cowichan Bay) 555 to 440
8:34 p.m. — Mike Wilson (674) has a significant lead over Darlene Davis(234) and Matteus Clement (215) in Area C (Cobble Hill)
8:42 p.m. — Rod Peters has been elected as Lake Cowichan’s mayor. His 479 votes beat Bob Day’s 435 and Ross Forrest’s 408
8:44 —Michelle Staples is Duncan’s new mayor. She earned 494 votes while Martin Barker got 468 and Sharon Jackson 330 and Daniel Helmer got 45
8:46 p.m. — Tom Duncan, Jenni Capps, Stacy Middlemiss, Garry Bruce, and Carol Newington and Bob Brooke are the City of Duncan’s new council
8:47 p.m. — Preliminary results have Al Siebring leading Jon Lefebure by just 10 votes
8:50 p.m. — Preliminary results have Rob Douglas, Kate Marsh, Chrisopher Justice, Tek Manhas, Rosalie Sawrie, and Deb Toporowski as North Cowichan’s next council
9:01 p.m. — In Area E (Cowichan Station/Sahtlam/Glenora) Loren Duncan leads Alison Nicolson by 4
9:03 p.m. — In Area G (Saltair/Gulf Islands) Lynne Smith leads Rod Smith 211 to 159.
9:03 p.m. — In Area H (North Oyster/Diamond) Murray McNab leads incumbent Mary Marcotte 245 to 232.
9:05 p.m. — In Area I (Youbou/Meade Creek) Klaus Kuhn leads Gail Dawson-Russell 225 to 80.
9:06 p.m. — There’s a party going on in Lake Cowichan. The council is Tim McGonigle 825 votes, Lorna Vomacka 796, Carolyne Austin 651 and Kristine Sandhu 628.
9:17 p.m. — Rob Douglas was the highest earning vote-getter for North Cowichan council. He earned 52.7 per cent of the votes
9:20 p.m. — Tom Duncan was the City of Duncan council’s leading vote-getter with 55.4 per cent of the votes
9:30 p.m. “I survived the night,” said Duncan mayoral candidate Martin Barker just before 9:30 p.m. He was runner up to Michelle Staples.
“I congratulate Michelle Staples. She didn’t run a negative pre-campaign which I honour, and congratulate all the winning candidates throughout the Valley and I hope they take good care of Duncan,” he said.
What’s next for Barker?
“Just to go back to my practice,” said the Chiropractor. “I’m probably going to step back from politics. It’s just a little too rough for me.”
9:41 p.m. “It was very close tonight between Martin and I,” said incoming Duncan mayor Michelle Staples. “So I recognize that the community is in some ways looking at things through different perspectives,” she said over the phone. “There are a lot of diverse voices on council. I believe that there’s lots we can do by bringing those voices together.”
9:45 p.m. Incoming Mayor Al Siebring speaks:
9:54 p.m. — With CVRD areas A through I reporting, the housing and homelessness referendum currently has YES leading NO 2,907 to 2,827. Waiting for results from City of Duncan, towns of Lake Cowichan and Ladysmith, and North Cowichan.
10:00 p.m. With CVRD areas A through I reporting, the drinking water and watershed referendum currently has YES leading NO 3,621 to 2,218. Waiting for results from City of Duncan, towns of Lake Cowichan and Ladysmith, andNorth Cowichan.
Sunday, Oct. 21
12:13 a.m. — School District 79 results have arrived. Incumbents Rob Hutchins, Elizabeth Croft, Candace Spilsbury, Barb de Groot, Randy Doman and Joe Thorne have been re-elected and will be joined by Johanne Kemmler.
Both referendums have passed region wide.
