Ann-Marie Thiele won the Anmore byelection Saturday in a landslide, collecting 290 votes out of the 317 ballots cast.
Photograph by: Submitted photo , for the NOW
In the end, it wasn't much of a race at all to pick a new Anmore village councillor.
Ann-Marie Thiele won a byelection Saturday in a landslide, collecting 290 votes out of the 317 ballots cast.
The Anmore resident beat out challengers Sagheer Jan and Arthur Crossman, who received 22 and five votes respectively.
"I'm really excited to get down to work," Thiele told The NOW, adding she has a lot to learn in her new job, but is ready for the task.
The mother of three said she wasn't surprised by the results, suggesting it showed many people in Anmore had enough awareness of the issues to give her a vote.
Thiele got down to business right away, joining her council colleagues at the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting in Victoria this week.
Anmore Mayor Heather Anderson was pleased with the results of the by-election, noting she supported Thiele and expects the new councillor to contribute to the village.
Anderson also suggested now the byelection is over, the council can now move on with the work that needs to be done in the municipality.
"We've been pretty much in a holding pattern over the summer," she said.
"We still have two years left in the term, so there lot's of things to get done."
Thiele ran in the byelection vowing to manage the growth of Anmore in a cautious and careful way.
She will be officially sworn in as a councillor on Oct. 9.
A fall byelection was called after rookie councillor Tim Laidler resigned his seat in June.
At the time of his resignation, Laidler told The NOW he decided to quit over the way council had hired its new CAO.
Anmore is no stranger to byelections. The village also held a byelection to replace former long-time mayor Hal Weinberg, who stepped down at the end of 2009.
This year's byelection is expected to cost $8,000 to $9,000.
