New Westminster Snapshot

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Submitted by Mark Yuen on October 27, 2008 - 2:29pm.

The mayor of the self-proclaimed oldest city in western Canada says good long-term planning will help cushion his city from the expected end of the construction boom in Metro Vancouver.

“We’ve got a good handle on things,” two-term New Westminster mayor Wayne Wright said recently. “Even in these tough economic times, what we’re working on is doable.”

But the affable mayor of the Royal City is facing a new challenge in this election in the form of Voice New Westminster, a new political party that is fielding a full slate of city council and school board candidates, including several incumbents who were formerly independent.

Blair Armitage, a former radio and television broadcaster who is challenging for the mayor’s chair, believes the biggest issues facing voters include the fact that New Westminster has the second highest tax rate in the region, many of its public facilities need replacing, and there’s a perception that crime is getting worse.

Other issues of contention will include a recently unveiled proposal to purchase a nine-acre waterfront property, and when work will move forward on a long-awaited high school and middle school after a century-old cemetery was found on the site of the current school.

 

- Dan Hilborn, 24 hours