Two-term councillor Patrick Johnstone is New West’s mayor-elect

Unofficial results, according to the City of New Westminster

• Patrick Johnstone received 6,676 votes

• Ken Armstrong of the New West Progressives received 5,227 votes

• Chuck Puchmayr, a multi-term city councillor and former MLA received 3,912 votes

As two-term-councillor-turned-mayoral-hopeful Patrick Johnstone watched the election results trickle in, he listened as family and friends wondered out loud when they’d be able to congratulate him.

“We’re not there yet,” he’d say, fixated on the screen at council chambers in City Hall. Johnstone, running with Community First, wanted to be entirely sure the result he was seeing was final.

Each time the screen refreshed in chambers, Johnstone’s friends and family cheered as he held onto the top position the entire night.

But it was waiting for polls 21, 22, and 23 where the anxiety really began to show.

Johnstone and his group—which included council incumbent, Jaimie McEvoy—wondered why it was taking so long to get those final results, and time seemed to stand still.

But as the 23rd poll reported, a cheer went off for Johnstone, who is now the mayor-elect of New Westminster. He's set to take the reins from Jonathan Cote, who served two terms and chose not to run again.

Once everything was final, Johnstone’s mother and father embraced him, with his mom squealing, “Oh, Patrick!”

“I wasn’t nervous until the numbers came in,” Johnstone tells New West Anchor. “I was feeling good. We did the work; we were working doors all day today, and I felt very positive. … You’d have to not be human to not have butterflies.”

Johnstone says the work was not his alone. “It’s a team who did a lot of work. … I’m really proud of the 12 candidates,” he said, noting that he was disappointed to see fellow Community First New West (CFNW) members Bereket Kebede and Chinu Das not make the council cut. Johnstone explained that, in his opinion, Kebede would have made an excellent councillor, since he not only came from Queensborough, but also had a good understanding of transportation. In Das’s case, Johnstone called her a mentor, adding that she’d provided plenty of advice and wisdom during her first term on council.

“Her term was so disrupted by COVID. I think a lot of things that she wanted to see get done were just put aside because of COVID.”

Who is Patrick Johnstone?

Johnstone was first elected to council in 2014, taking fifth place after then-incumbents Chuck Puchmayr, Lorrie Williams, Jaimie McEvoy, and Bill Harper. He was re-elected to council in 2018, coming in second to Nadine Nakagawa.

According to the biography on his personal blog, he was born in the Kootenays and first came to New West in the late '80s. He decided to settle in New West in the early 2000s because he liked the transit access and livability of the city.

Johnstone’s LinkedIn profile shows he received his bachelor of science in geography, and his masters in earth sciences, both obtained at SFU in 1997 and 2006, respectively. He spent two years working as a supportive geologist in Illinois; this was followed by a four-year stint working as a project scientist for SNC Lavalin, with a focus on contaminated sites investigation and remediation. He then spent seven years as the environmental coordinator for the City of Richmond, doing similar work.

Since Richmond, he’s continued to do consulting work, and is also an auxiliary contaminated sites specialist for the City of Vancouver.

Johnstone says he’s always had a passion for volunteering, getting involved with the board of the Royal City Curling Club and the New Westminster Environmental Partners. He’s also been spotted at a variety of local events with his Ask Pat booth, where people are able to ask questions and provide comments.

Johnstone—who has professed in the past to own “one too many bicycles” and previously worked as a bike courier in downtown Vancouver—was the councillor who last year put forward a motion for the city to commit to building an All Ages and Abilities (AAA) active transportation network in New West—a plan that is going ahead.

What's next for Johnstone?

While Johnstone is bringing four members from the CFNW slate with him—Ruby Campbell, Jaimie McEvoy, Tasha Henderson, and Nadine Nakagawa—two New West Progressives have also been elected in Paul Minhas and Daniel Fontaine. What will that mean for co-operation?

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," said Johnstone, "I think we're all working together. I think everyone has the same goal ... to serve the city, and so I'm not concerned at all about ... building this team together and getting everyone working together."

Johnstone says his next steps will be to chat with councillors as a team, and individually.

"The first things we need to do is figure out what the goals of each of these councillors are. I think during the campaign I talked a lot about making sure that ... every councillor is going to have a role and is going to have something to do," he noted.

For now, it was off to Angelina's Dutch Corner to celebrate—with Johnstone finding a moment of light-heartedness in an evening of suspense.

"Do they have a waffle beer there?"