The Town of View Royal has a new face on council.
Six people ran for the town’s four councillor seats, and Gery Lemon is the only person elected who has not sat on council before.
“And I am a woman,” Gery Lemon, the new council-elect said with a chuckle. “Contrary to what other media has said.”
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While View Royal has had women on council before, there were none among the previous council before Oct. 20.
“I look forward to representing the perspective of a large part of the population. I think that’s been missing. Women simply look at things differently,” Lemon said.
As a former journalist and communications specialist, Lemon hopes to engage people of all demographics in the district.
“If I can play a role in interesting people and connecting people with council proceedings and issues and concerns, I think it would add to the health of the community,” she said.
Lemon is interested in finding a way to bring people together, perhaps with a town centre or, as she puts it, a “community heart” where people could meet and gather. There’s also the “untenable” traffic that Lemon said causes a real stress. That’s where she’d like to see the ENN corridor revitalized.
“It belongs to the people of Vancouver Island and there must be a way of getting that corridor running,” she said.
She’s also excited to serve alongside two long-term incumbents who Lemon has known since the days her husband was mayor. Over her kitchen table, Lemon said, she heard the background of long-standing issues in the town and gave her perspective, then only informally. Now she’ll take on her new role by getting a handle on the procedures and finding out which committees she has been appointed to.
After running unopposed, Mayor David Screech will serve his second term as mayor and his fifth on View Royal’s council. Incumbents Damian Kowalewich, John Rogers and Ron Mattson were also re-elected.
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