The atmosphere was anxious and quiet in the sparse meeting room at the Nikkei Centre in Burnaby Saturday night.
TEAM Burnaby candidates filtered in with family and friends after 8 p.m., but the party's defeat at the polls was soon evident.
The Burnaby Citizens Association swept the board for the second consecutive election, with Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan winning with 76 per cent of the vote.
BCA councillors Pietro Calendino, Dan Johnston, Anne Kang, Colleen Jordan, Richard Chang, Sav Dhaliwal, Paul McDonell, and Nick Volkow were all re-elected, as well.
BCA school board candidates Ron Burton, Larry Hayes, Gary Wong, James Wang, Baljinder Narang, Meiling Chia and Harman Pandher took all the trustee positions.
As about 20 TEAM candidates and supporters clustered together in rows of chairs between the white walls of the meeting room, talk turned quickly to why the party was unsuccessful in its bid to oust even one BCA candidate from council or school board.
"Look how much money the unions put in," school board candidate Bonda Bitzer said. "It works for them. It was successful."
Bitzer received 3.7 per cent of the votes for school board, coming in ninth in the candidate race.
Alex Hui, another school board candidate, said he thought Burnaby Parents' Voice might have split the vote for school board opposition.
But the results were what he'd expected, he added.
"I'm not surprised."
Hui received 3.5 per cent of the votes, coming in 11th out of the school board candidates.
But council candidate Jim Favaro was upbeat, saying that the party's campaign for the next civic election would begin right away.
"It starts tomorrow," he said. "We're coming back."
Favaro was 13th out of all council candidates with 3.6 per cent of the votes.
The party is going to regroup and get back out talking to voters, he added.
"It's been wonderful meeting all the people," Favaro said of the campaign.
He congratulated Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan on winning a fourth term in office, and all of the BCA council and school board candidates for winning their spots.
"I've said it before, at the Stride debate - I commend anyone who goes into public office," he said. "It's a tough job to do."
But TEAM will focus on getting more people out to vote in the future, Favaro added.
There wasn't a galvanizing issue for Burnaby residents this election, he said, and the party will work to find out what is most important to residents in the next election.
Residents should reach out to TEAM on Twitter or Facebook to let the party know what it wants to see in its next municipal government, Favaro said.
Social media played a big part on election night for TEAM, as it had during the candidates' campaigns, with groups of candidates and supporters huddled over smart phones, checking with Twitter to see the results come in.
"That's it," council candidate Garth Evans, who served one term on council previously, said around 8:30 p.m. "It's over."
Evans was the closest contender for a council spot in the room, placing 10th out of all candidates, with 4.7 per cent.
TEAM council candidate Lee Rankin, a former councillor as well, came in ninth in the council race, with five per cent of the votes.
Rankin was not with the other TEAM Burnaby candidates at Nikkei Place on election night. Neither was mayoral candidate Tom Tao, who was second runner-up in the race for mayor, with 16.5 per cent of the votes.
Evans told the candidates, volunteers and supporters that he was proud of what they'd done and thought it was a shame none of the candidates would be serving on council or school board.
"It's a loss for Burnaby," he added.
The Burnaby Municipal Greens, a first-time party in the city, also intend to prepare for the next election right away.
"It's only 156 weeks away!" said council candidate Carrie McLaren from Romana Restaurant in North Burnaby, where the candidates had gathered with supporters for dinner while awaiting the results.
McLaren led the Green pack in terms of votes, coming in 17 out of 21 candidates, with two per cent of the votes.
"We're already discussing the next election," said McLaren, who acknowledged the party might have done better if it had run a full slate instead of just four candidates for council and two for school board.
"It was a good start," she said. "We got a lot of good reception at the door, and a lot of good tweets on Twitter."
All the Green candidates intend to run again, she confirmed.
