Lyn Hall will remain at the city of Prince George council table, but this time, he'll be sitting in the mayor's seat.
The mood in Hall’s party headquarters was happy all Saturday night, as soon as the early advance polls showed an early lead over opponent Don Zurowski.
Hall never lost that momentum as almost 100 supporters cheered on the results of each polling station that flashed on big screen TVs at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club as Hall’s margin widened.
When the finally tally came in - Hall took a total of 10,463 votes to Zurowski's 8,850 - the new mayor was flanked by his wife and two daughters as he raised his hands in victory.
“I am absolutely humbled and ecstatic over this win,” said Hall in the moments after. “It’s been a long 40 days and we’ve put a lot of effort into this. We really worked the grass roots and we’ve proven that that works.”
In his acceptance speech, Hall thanked his daughters for their work galvanizing the student vote. Hall stressed his commitment to community and to a council-focused style of leadership and said his campaign covered all ages, ethnicities and political stripes.
"I've drawn from every demographic
"This is really a dream come true," Hall said to close his speech, adding he thinks the city is in a “good spot."
His camp made 34,000 calls in the days before the election to tackle the high level of indecision among city residents. In the end 34.3 per cent of eligible voters came out, for a total of 19,710 votes cast.
“That’s what made a real difference, I think, because they had an opportunity to ask questions, they had an opportunity to connect to the platform that we had,” said Hall, adding it allowed them to identify their support and make sure the support made it out come voting day.
David McWalter, who worked on Hall’s campaign for more than a month, said it took eight volunteers on four-hour shifts for 20 nights to make up those calls. Each conversation lasted at least a minute, he said.
McWalter said voter indecision was high in the beginning at 58 per cent, but by the end, it was down to 44 per cent. In the three days before voting day, Hall was ahead, which McWalter said wasn’t surprising.
"The trend was right from day one," says McWalter of Hall's support.
Several successful councillors made it out to congratulate Hall on the win, including incumbents Frank Everitt, Brian Skakun, Albert Koehler and newcomer Terri McConnachie.
Koehler said the voters made a clear call for a change to council as two councillors - Cameron Stolz and Dave Wilbur - failed to win their re-election bid.
“We’ll see in what direction,” Koehler said. “At the end, in my opinion, it comes down to leadership and now we’ve got a different leader and we’ll see how that works out.”
Skakun said Hall’s style of leadership is a welcome shift.
“There was lots of personality conflicts the last time and I don’t think that was productive so I think with Lyn Hall’s leadership we’re going to get off with a good start and move ahead,” Skakun said.
That’s the message that Hall said he tried to stress with voters.
“My style of leadership is an inclusive style where I’m going to utilize the strength and knowledge of those folks around the table and go to the community,” Hall said. “We don’t have all the answers and I think that was the other message we sent to them: you’re going to be part of this.”
