Patrick Johnstone

Patrick Johnstone is from the Kootenays region of British Columbia, where he was born and lived during his youth. He attended Simon Fraser University and completed a bachelor of science degree in geography in 1997, and a master of science degree in earth science in 2006.

According to his blog, Johnstone first arrived in New Westminster during the 1980s, and decided to live there permanently in the early 2000s.^{[citation needed]}

Prior to entering politics, Johnstone worked as a project scientist for SNC-Lavalin from 2005 to 2009, and became the environmental coordinator for the City of Richmond in 2009.^[2] Jonhstone also got involved in his neighbourhood's Brow of the Hill Residents’ Association, the Royal City Curling Club, and began writing his blog. He was named New Westminster's Citizen of the Year in 2013 by the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce for his contributions to the city of New Westminster.^[3]

After many years of working for various municipalities in Metro Vancouver, Johnstone decided to enter politics by running for New Westminster City Council in the 2014 election. On election day, he placed fifth and was elected to city council given the city's plurality-at-large electoral system. He was re-elected in 2018.

In 2022, Johnstone helped create Community First New West, a social democratic municipal political party in New Westminster. Johnstone subsequently won the party's nomination for the 2022 British Columbia municipal elections.^[4] In October 2022, Johnstone won the mayoral election, after receiving 41.93% of votes in a three-candidate race.^[5]

Johnstone attended the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in December 2023, following an invite from the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the ICLEI to represent the City of New Westminster.^[6] His trip became the subject of controversy when opposing city councillors criticized Johnstone for not informing city council of his plan to attend the conference.^[7] New Westminster City Council eventually rejected the request for a report into the mayor's trip, as New Westminster did not have rules that require elected officials to disclose their travel itinerary to city council, and the trip was not funded by the city's budget.^[8][9] However, the city's ethics commissioner later ruled that his trip to the conference did breach the city's ethics rules, and recommended that Johnstone receive additional ethics training.^[10]

Johnstone oversaw several upgrades to New Westminster's cycling and pedestrian network, including the extension of the network to New Westminster Secondary School via Sixth Street, and the construction of a protected bike path along the Stewardson Way section of the BC Parkway.^[11][12] Johnstone's government also advocated for more speed and red-light cameras to be installed by the provincial government in New Westminster, arguing that one third of police and fire department responses in the city were caused by traffic incidents that could be mitigated with traffic enforcement cameras.^[13]