Numbers Show: Smith and Seven-Way Race

numbers show: Lindell Smith will be Halifax first black city councillor elected since 2000, according to Huffington Post Canada. Smith decisively won a seven-way race for the city north-end district with about 52 per cent of the vote. 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. 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. We need to have different voices' 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. 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. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.