Leadership Table: Smith and North-End District

leadership table: Smith decisively won a seven-way race for the city north-end district with about 52 per cent of the vote, according to CTV. The 26-year-old will be the first black city councillor elected since 2000 -- when Graham Downey, the only other visible minority member to serve in Halifax regional council since its inception in 1996, lost the seat Smith now occupies. "For the black community, it like we have somebody who at the leadership table," Smith says. "It almost this sigh of relief like, 'Wow, it took this long." Smith predecessor, outgoing councillor Jennifer Watts, did not seek re-election in the north-end district. The numbers show ... something different is needed," Smith said after Halifax municipal elections wrapped up over the weekend. "When someone comes in and starts asking questions, people realize, 'We don't know why we still do it that way."' Towns and cities across Nova Scotia made modest gains in diversity with the results of municipal elections on Saturday, but Smith and others note the province still has a long way to go. She expressed hope this election would change the composition of the then all-white, three-quarters male and "predominately older" council to better reflect the city it serves. Meanwhile, the number of female councillors in City Hall shrunk from four to two. "It great that we have someone who not of European descent and is not over fifty, but we need to have all different voices," Smith says. Despite having a more diverse roster of candidates this year -- including seven visible minorities and the city first openly transgender candidate -- Smith was the only member of a previously unrepresented group to get elected. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.