Vision Vancouver school trustee Patti Bacchus calls Saturday night's election a "ringing endorsement of the advocacy agenda" and that Vancouverites "want to see a school board that really stands up for the interests and needs of children and their families."
Vision's Mike Lombardi and Ken Clement were re-elected to the nine-member board with Bacchus. They're joined by Vision newbies Cherie Payne and Rob Wynen. The NPA picked up one seat to re-elect Ken Denike and add Sophia Woo and Fraser Ballantyne to the opposition. COPE's Al Blakey and Jane Bouey lost their seats, although Allan Wong was re-elected with a sixth place showing.
Bacchus scored 72,025 votes, a figure bested only by Mayor Gregor Robertson who earned 77,005. The top four finishers, all Vision candidates, each collected upwards of 60,000 votes-more votes than six of the incoming city councillors and most of the elected park commissioners.
"People often say people don't vote for school board and once again we've proven them wrong," said Bacchus, also a strong performer in the 2008 race when she was the third highest vote getter behind Robertson and Vision's Raymond Louie.
Bacchus, who started door knocking in early August, said the Vision team worked hard to get its message out and make personal connections. She acknowledged the advantage of having a last name at the top of the alphabet, coupled with a high media profile thanks to being the board's chair when trustees battled with former education minister Margaret MacDiarmid during the last term and challenged the outcome of the comptroller general's damning and controversial report on the board's finances, which Bacchus called "an effort to intimidate and silence" trustees.
"Our message resonates about public education. It's really a pan-partisan issue," she added. "I don't think there was any viable opposition in terms of what the other people stood for [such as] to say you stand for fiscal responsibility when the school board balances its budget every year. The school board isn't out recklessly spending money and taxpayers know that."
Bacchus' "biggest disappointment" is COPE trustees Blakey and Bouey losing their seats.
Vision and COPE ran a joint slate, but Bacchus said some voters didn't seem to understand what the arrangement meant.
"There was confusion and as the fight got more intense, people were focusing on Vision and the NPA. I haven't really figured out what happened, but that's the disappointment for me-losing some strong voices on the board. Whatever it was that happened with COPE opened up these spaces that were filled in by the NPA's people."
Denike, a longtime NPA trustee, finished fifth with 59,310 votes. He said he expected at least three seats for his party. "What stood out for me was not so much the numbers, but the composition of those elected and not elected," he said Monday. "The loss of Al Blakey and Jane Bouey is more than quietly interesting because they're supported strongly by VESTA [the elementary teachers' union]. What that spells out is that VESTA's influence in the election was somewhat less than has been in the past_ My read is the public did not want the really militant candidates and basically COPE suffered accordingly."
Denike maintains Vision trustees largely benefited from voters' overall support for the party, not for their advocacy.
"The Vision board was very quiet for the last four or five, or maybe six months-very quiet, not coming out with the rather strident opposition to government that they had in the past. They quieted down their opposition, so I don't think the public was voting on that," he said.
Denike promises NPA trustees will work hard over the next term.
"We're the loyal opposition. We'll put out good proposals and plans and hopefully some of them will see the light of day."
Twitter: @Naoibh
