'I feel fantastic': Laura Cabott elected mayor of Whitehorse

It was emblazoned on her campaign signs — "leadership and experience" — and Laura Cabott said the message got through to voters. 

Cabott was elected the next mayor of Whitehorse on Thursday, by a healthy margin of nearly 1,000 votes.

"I think that people realized that now is a time that they wanted some strong leadership at the city, somebody that had some experience in city hall," she said, after the results were in.

Patti Balsillie finished second in the city's mayoral race, and Samson Hartland was not far behind Balsillie, in third.

Polls closed at 8 p.m. and a little over an hour later, results were in from all polling stations. Cabott earned the most votes at every polling station.

She finished with 2,897 votes, or 43 per cent.

"I'm relieved. I'm tired. And I guess the third thing is, I'm just very, very honoured," she said at City Hall on Thursday night.

"I feel fantastic." 

Balsillie finished with 1,942 votes, or 28.8 per cent, and Hartland finished third with 1,898 votes or 28.2 per cent. 

Cabott, a lawyer who served a term as city councillor before running for mayor, will take over from Dan Curtis, who served three terms as mayor before deciding not to run again. 

Hartland also sat on city council before seeking the top job this year, and Balsillie was new to city politics.

'Bringing ideas to the people'

Cabott said running for mayor was "quite a step up" from running for councillor. She said her platform was based on her experience as a councillor, and from talking to many local groups and organizations.

She described herself as "someone that was bringing ideas to the campaign, bringing ideas to the people."

Housing was a central part of Cabott's campaign — as it was for all candidates — and she's proposed that the city purchase more empty properties in the city and develop them. She also said the city needs to improve its development approval process, and support the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council's efforts to develop their lands.

She's also cited climate change as a priority issue for her, and has pitched a citizens' advisory committee on climate change and adaptation, improving the city's cycling network, and establishing more electric vehicle charging stations on city land.

"I think there was maybe a little bit of criticism there, that I had all these ideas and this is what I wanted to do. But for me, that's what a campaign is about," she said.

New councillors elected

Cabott will be working with a group of city councillors evenly divided between newcomers, and experienced councillors.

Seventeen people ran for the six seats on council.

The two incumbent councillors who ran — Dan Boyd and Jocelyn Curteanu — held onto their seats, finishing third and fourth among the council candidates, respectively.  

Boyd served as a city councillor in the 1990s, and then returned to council in 2015.

Curteanu was first elected in 2012 and will now serve her fourth term on council. She said during the campaign that part of the reason she wanted to run was to ensure there were some experienced councillors at the table.

"I'm very thrilled with the outcome, for sure," she said on Thursday night.

"My first hope is that we can get all on the same page relatively quickly, hopefully through strategic planning, and we can hit the ground running. And I'm going to help out the new councillors as best as I can."

Kirk Cameron will also return to City Hall, six years after he resigned as a councillor. He stepped down at that time in protest over the firing of two city employees.

The three other elected councillors are new to city politics.

Mellisa Murray received the most votes of all the council candidates, by a wide margin. She finished with nearly 500 votes more than the second-place council candidate, Michelle Friesen.

Murray called her win "amazing," and said she's pleased by the diversity of the new council. She also said she's ready to get down to business.

"I started working, I would say, almost over a year ago, just doing my research and really understanding and grasping what the council can do and the different levels of government," she said.

"I think the campaign trail is over, but I think the hard work starts now."

Friesen, an Indigenous Yukoner from the Ta'an Kwäch'än First Nation, won her seat on council after her second political campaign of the year. She ran in last spring's territorial election for the NDP, but lost by a few dozen votes.

Ted Laking, who's also been involved in territorial politics as the Yukon Party's chief of staff, finished fifth among the council candidates and with just a few votes more than Cameron.

Laking said he's eager to tackle the city's housing crunch by making more land available and planning the next subdivision development.  

He said he was impressed by all 17 people who ran for council this year.

"There are some very phenomenal people. I think that as a community, we should all be very proud," he said. 

"And I think that with six people [on council] that are looking to better our community, we're going to be able to accomplish some really good things here over the next several years."