There are fewer women who will sit in the mayor’s seats across Vancouver Island after the 2026 municipal election, with only seven being elected.
Prior to the election, there were 11 women who were mayors of the 36 municipalities on Vancouver Island.
With some choosing not to seek re-election, and others losing, there are now only seven.
Now, the following women are mayors of Vancouver Island municipalities:
Marianne Alto (Victoria)
Deena Beeston (Ladysmith)
Mary Beil (Parksville)
Vickey Brown (Cumberland)
Pat Corbett-Labatt (Port Hardy)
Nicole Minions (Comox)
Allison Stiglite (Tahsis)
Outgoing mayors Barb Desjardins (Esquimalt), Michelle Staples (Duncan) and Maja Tait (Sooke) chose not to seek re-election, while mayors Marie-Térèse Little (Metchosin), Marilyn McEwan (Ucluelet) and Sharie Minions (Port Alberni) were not re-elected.
READ MORE: A list of all incumbents who lost their seats on Vancouver Island
Beil and Stiglite are the two new women mayors elected. Beil coming up from being a Parksville councillor to now serve as the city’s mayor, and Stiglite as a school trustee for the Vancouver Island West School District to be the mayor of Tahsis.
Beil says she chose to run for mayor after being encouraged to do so by the people surrounding her.
“There was a lot of encouragement from different people in the community, people who are very involved with different organizations, as well as encouragement from other councillors in Parksville,” Beil said in an interview with CHEK News.
“And I consulted with a few people who I feel are very non-biased and have a good perspective on the lay of the land, who felt that yes, I could do this and to go for it. So I decided to do that.”
Beil says that when choosing whether or not to run for mayor, Staples and Tait were both inspirations for her, as well as Josie Osborne at the provincial level, who was the Tofino mayor before that.
“Such an inspiration to me,” she said. “There are many, many great women leaders out there in the role, and that all helps.”
Community support is one factor that Comox Mayor Nicole Minions says is missing for a lot of women. She says that while it is common for men to be encouraged to run, that often isn’t extended to women.
“I always tell my female colleagues, business colleagues, that it’s really important to think of strong women that they think would do well in that role, and to encourage and ask women to run for council and to be mayor,” Minions says.
Outgoing Sooke mayor Maja Tait says she hopes to see more women step up for leadership positions in politics.
“It’s a demanding job, and I think we’ll be missing that representation at the table,” Tait said.
“It’s like in every realm of life, we do need women in leadership roles doing work on behalf of their communities.”
Kim Speers, associate teaching professor in the University of Victoria’s School of Public Administration, says there are many barriers to women in politics.
She echoed that women aren’t often seen as “traditionally powerful,” so aren’t as frequently encouraged to run, and also that women are traditionally more responsible for home care and child care activities.
“Another barrier that is more prominent, and I was part of a group as well that was trying to get more women to run or to run again, and a lot of times it was a hard no, and the reason why was just because of the toxic politics and the hostile political environment that women and men have to work in,” Speers said.
“But with women, that discriminatory, volatile behaviour where women are receiving death threats, harassment. It doesn’t really make it enticing for somebody to want to do that type of thing, and especially in a public environment where it’s a fishbowl.”
Speers says across the 13 municipalities on the South Island, there were only six candidates out of the 40 who ran for mayor.
That trend does not carry over once you look at representation for councillors.
There were 31 women elected as councillors across the South Island, compared to 32 men.
Minions says without women at the table, you lose an important voice.
“The perspective that women bring to the table, we have a very empathetic lens. We have a lot of multitasking skills and hold kind of the broad community perspective. There’s just things that women do very well,” she said.
“I call it like matriarchal leadership, where you’re taking in a really collaborative community approach to things. And I think that to have that missing from the conversation is just a real missed opportunity to not have female voices in the leadership roles.”
Tait says she hopes to see more women for the mayor’s seat in the future.
“This world and everything is ready for you to show up as you are, always to be your true self, your most authentic self. It can be challenging at times, a little petty. You’ll encounter some misogyny, unfortunately, but it’s all very small,” Tait said.
“So, put down your phone and get out into your community, interacting with real people and not arguing with fake profiles online; it does not represent who is actually out there, and the community needs to see you strong and giving your very best. So, put down the phone and look up and enjoy what is out there waiting for you.”
“Have courage and always know there’s people out there cheering for you, and there’s a whole generation of younger women that are looking up to you, and you want to set the table for them as well. I think that’s important.”