Where are the past election results on the City of Vancouver website?

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Earlier this year, the City of Vancouver launched its new $3-million website, which reportedly took three years of discussions and work.

At the time, the city made a big production about how a survey concluded that most people hated the old site.

I wasn't among those contacted because I would have said that it was one of the most useful government sites I've encountered.

The new one, on the other hand, regularly drives me crazy because I don't know where to find information that used to be so easy to locate.

Take election results, for example. In the past, I would go to the "departments" section on the home page, click open the city clerk page, and then go to election results. I could look up who won previous elections.

Now, there's no general "departments" section—unlike on the federal and provincial government websites.

The only election results I could find were for 2011.

I was unable to locate results for previous years. They're probably on the site—but even a search didn't yield this information. I couldn't even find them on a crib sheet that was posted to explain how to use the new site.

After about 15 minutes of searching, I sent an email to the city media-relations department, but I'm not confident that I'll receive a response on a Sunday morning.

I don't think the mayor and city council deliberately want to erase history. But I'm in a pickle because I think one of the writers made a mistake in an article, and I can't get the answer from the official source: the City of Vancouver.

My guess is that after posting this, some city official will let me know where past election results can be found on the site. And when I find out, I'll let the readers know.

Note: I just found the past election results here, but they only go back to 1996. The city also notified me immediately afterward of this link. I still can't find a list of previous mayors and councils. Help!

Comments (10) Add New Comment
Save Vancouver
The new website sucks. $3 million flushed to fix something that wasn't broken.
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Jacob
Wow. I can't believe how difficult it was to find these results! I had to Google: City of Vancouver 2008 election results.

Phew, that was really some top notch investigative journalism I engaged in there. Now, what to do with the other 23.99 hours of my day?

Seriously Charlie, this is pretty ridiculous.
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Charlie Smith
Jacob,

I need to know the election results going way before 2008. I want to know if four women were elected to council in 1993. I believe this is the case, but it's not apparent from my search of the city website.

Charlie Smith
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Jenny
The old website is at former.vancouver.ca
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Ha ha
fuggetaboutit, Charlie - it's a labyrinth! Call the clerk on Monday like the rest of us... and endure the weirdness.

COV has a commitment to being open!
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Charlie Smith
Jenny,

Thanks for the link. I was wrong. There were five women elected to Vancouver city council in 1993: Nancy Chiavario, Jennifer Clarke, Maggie Ip, Lynne Kennedy, and Jenny Kwan.

Charlie Smith
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Richard Roe
Call the Clerk on Monday. But as soon as anyone picks up, say "Hi, sorry, I have a philosophical problem with trade-unionists, please pass me to an exempt staff member who isn't riding the gravy train at all of our expense."

That ensures you get great service.
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Anita Romaniuk
Does anyone know how to find a poll map for the 2011 election? The only one I could find on the old site had dots for the polling locations. I need one that can be filled in and the dots obscure the map.
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Joseph Jones
CoV's expensive new web fright:
Convenient obfuscation manufactured by incompetence
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