After months of anticipation, debates and delays, the results for Sooke's byelection are in, and Herb Haldane will become the district’s next councillor.
On Monday, July 14, the district announced the official results of the July 12 byelection. With 732 votes, Haldane will return to Sooke council chambers, narrowly edging out runner-up Helen Ritts, who received 709 votes. In third place was Katherine Strongwind, who tallied 432 votes.
Haldane will fill the seat left by Dana Lajeunesse, who departed council chambers last November after being elected to the B.C. legislature. Haldane is set to be sworn into office at the July 28 regular council meeting.
“On behalf of Council, I’d like to thank all candidates for stepping forward and contributing to our democratic process,” said Mayor Maja Tait. “Congratulations to Councillor-Elect Haldane. We look forward to working together as we continue serving the residents of Sooke.”
Holidays and the impending federal election made the scheduling of the byelection somewhat complicated. But when the time came, seven candidates threw their hats into the ring in hopes of being Sooke’s next councillor. They other candidates were Shaun Burns, Nick Dickson-Wilde, Nathan McKeown, and Elaine Price.
In total, 2,071 votes were cast, resulting in a voter turnout of 16.7 per cent based on 12,387 registered voters in the district.
The district says that this level of participation is consistent with typical turnout rates for local byelections in B.C., which tend to range between 10 and 20 per cent turnout of eligible voters.
The 2025 byelection had a four per cent better turnout than the 2019 byelection, which saw 12.7 per cent participation. It did not receive as much engagement as the 2022 general election, where there was 25.8 per cent voter turnout.
Most votes were cast on general voting day, with 1,119 cast placed on July 12. Advance voting days saw fairly strong turnouts as well, with 403 votes cast on July 2 and 517 on July 9.
Haldane served as Sooke councillor from 2008 to 2014, and sought to run in the past provincial election with BC United before the party disbanded.
