SURREY - With Linda Hepner dominating votes in the 2014 civic election in Surrey, it leaves one to wonder how the mayor-elect fared in each of the city's town centres.
Newton, for example, was a particularly vocal community along the campaign trail, likely because it was home to two high-profile murders, including the death of hockey mom Julie Paskall outside Newton Arena and Serena Vermeersch, the 17-year-old found dead near Newton train tracks.
Mayoral candidate and current councillor Barinder Rasode broke party lines after Paskall's murder, saying the city should have done more in the neighbourhood. Soon after, she left Surrey First to sit as an independent, citing disagreement with her teammates.
Later, a communityhosted mayoral debate in Newton's Strawberry Hill area during the lead-up to voting day was not attended by frontrunners Hepner and Doug McCallum.
So, did that show in the numbers?
While Hepner took the most votes in every town centre, there was a smaller gap between her and McCallum in the city's more troubled neighbourhoods of Newton and Whalley.
Of 52 polling stations, McCallum topped 11 (W.E. Kinvig Elementary, Tamanwis Secondary, Strawberry Hill Elementary, Simon Cunningham Elementary, Newton Elementary, Kirkbride Elementary, Green Timbers Elementary, Chimney Hill Elementary, Cindrich Elementary, Cougar Creek Elementary and Panorama Ridge Secondary) and Rasode, just one (election headquarters).
areid@thenownewspaper.com
The Now broke down the votes, by town centre, to see how each of "the big three" mayoral candidates fared:
NEWTON
Hepner: 9,401
McCallum: 9,300
Rasode: 7,171
FLEETWOOD
Hepner: 5,580
McCallum; 2,556
Rasode: 2,187
GUILDFORD
Hepner: 6,556
McCallum: 2,356
Rasode: 1,170
CLOVERDALE
Hepner: 6,519
Rasode: 2,263
McCallum: 2,010
WHALLEY/CITY CENTRE
Hepner: 7,613
McCallum: 6,654
Rasode: 4,029
SOUTH SURREY
Hepner: 11,250
McCallum: 3,625
Rasode: 3,344
(Note: This excludes special/hospital voting and mail-in ballots.)