Simon Yu will be the new mayor of Prince George, according to preliminary election results released by the City of Prince George on Saturday.
Yu received 6,092 votes (40.2 per cent), ahead of Terri McConnachie (4,152 votes/27.4 per cent), Roy Stewart (2,424 votes/16 per cent), Adam Hyatt (1,773 votes/11.7 per cent), Lisa Mitchell (553 votes/3.6 per cent) and Chris Wood (159 votes/one per cent).
“I’m so happy to see the size of support within the community,” Yu said. “This win, it was unexpected to say the least.”
Brian Skakun (9,370 votes), Garth Frizzell (6,911 votes), Kyle Sampson (6,840 votes), Cori Ramsay (5,971 votes), Ron Polillo (5,685 votes), Trudy Klassen (5,515 votes), Tim Bennett (5,295 votes) and Susan Scott (5,224 votes) were elected to city council.
Candidates Wesley Mitchell (4,790 votes), Cameron Stolz (4,401 votes), Karm Manhas (4,333 votes), Karen Muir (3,973 votes), James Steidle (3,947 votes), John Zukowski (3,440 votes), Colleen Mahoney (3,399 votes), Chris Stern (2,425 votes), Paul Serup (2,081 votes), Doug Jeffery (1,903 votes), Nour Salim (1,729 votes) and Richard Cook (1,202 votes) did not receive enough votes to be elected.
The total voter turnout was 15,310 (26.27 per cent), up from 2018 when only 24 per cent (13,184) of eligible 54,852 voters cast a ballot.
Yu came to Prince George from Hong Kong in 1975 to attend what was then called Prince George College, a Catholic boarding school. He’ll be the first first-generation immigrant to be mayor of Prince George, when he and the rest of the new city council are sworn in on Nov. 7. The first normal city council meeting will be held on Nov. 21.
“Here I am - 1975, and I’m still here,” Yu said. “I never, ever felt I was an outsider. Diversity is doing well in Prince George.”
Yu said he wants to be known as the “3-A mayor,” with the A’s standing for accessible, accountable and action-oriented.
He said he wants to make sure he is available to everyone in the city, including the city’s homeless population, be accountable to the public and “I want to get things done.”
“Job 1 is meeting with the council elect. I’m only one of the nine votes (on city council),” Yu said. “I want to get all the council elect together and set our priorities.”
Yu took an early lead in the advance voting, receiving 1,180 votes, ahead of Terri McConnachie (1,093 votes), Roy Stewart (689 votes), Adam Hyatt (328 votes), Lisa Mitchell (143 votes) and Chris Wood (34 votes).
On election day, Yu garnered the most votes at all eight polling stations in the city.
