The Victoria municipal election saw Mayor Lisa Helps re-elected with over 42 per cent of votes.
The race saw 10 candidates in for the role, but most runners up were far behind.
Stephen Hammond, who ran with NewCouncil.ca, was the closest and came in second with 29.3 per cent of votes, or roughly 8,700 votes. Hammond declined to put forward a concession statement.
In third place came Michael Geoghegan, who gathered 14.6 per cent of votes.
READ MORE: Lisa Helps re-elected as mayor of Victoria
“I want to congratulate Lisa on running a clean campaign,” Geoghegan said. “I was rather shocked and disappointed to come in third, but I recognize in hindsight we were asking Victoria to do something unconventional, to not be welded to the political left or right but instead to what is effective and ineffective, that’s tougher to get their heads around.”
Geoghegan also said that Helps’ victory with over 42 per cent meant that if she was against one competitor instead of nine, she’d be hard to beat.
Geoghegan and Hammond had hit some bumps, with accusations on either side of either hateful ad campaigns or false accusations.
READ MORE: Victoria mayoral candidate files complaint against fellow mayoral candidate
“Even though I know there will be a lot of people disappointed that Lisa was re-elected, I’m glad it was someone who wasn’t running a negative , dirty campaign,” Geoghegan said . “It would have been a terrible outcome, from that standpoint.”
Geoghegan said he was not sure yet if he will run for mayor again at the next election, but he was still open to the idea.
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