If the results of the Bowen Island municipal elections on Nov. 19, 2011 were to be described by a song title you might go with an old 60's standard that bangs a lot of drums - Wipeout. In this case it was an almost total wipeout of candidates who supported the National Park Reserve initiative.

Further, the community opinion vote on the initiative to establish an NPR was flatly turned down, with 55 percent voting 'no', 45 percent 'yes'. The opinion vote asked 'Do you support the creation of a National Park Reserve on Bowen Island' and, while it was non-binding, candidates, the province and Parks Canada all stated a 'no' vote would mean the cessation of talks to create an NPR.

A failure of Parks Canada may have been ignoring a petition of over 1100 citizens - the Island has an overall population of about 3500 - asking for Crippen Park, a Metro Vancouver park and a feature of the Island, to be excluded from an NPR. Parks Canada continued to state any NPR on Bowen must include Crippen.

Jack Adelaar, an unknown on the Bowen political scene, won the mayoral race over Nerys Poole, 1,052 to 868 (all results are preliminary); both are lawyers, with Poole retired and Adelaar winding down his civil litigation practice. Poole was a councilor in the last session and along with fellow-councilor Doug Hooper invited Parks Canada to Bowen to consider creating an NPR. She championed a cause most of her constituents did not want.

Adelaar did not support an NPR and ran on the issues of getting Bowen's finances in shape, selling surplus lands to create money for capital projects and revitalizing Snug Cove, the island's village where the ferry to the mainland docks. Adelaar felt Bowen council had wasted time, effort and money on the NPR initiative.

Hooper, too, lost, needing to finish in the top 6 of 12 council candidates to make it again and managing only 8th, about 125 votes shy of a second term. Another incumbent turfed along with Hooper was Peter Frinton, also in favor of a national park, who finished 7th.

Others in favor of an NPR who did not make it were Rob Cairns (10th), Silvaine Zimmermann (11th) and Jonathan Bell (12th). Here are the six, in order of finish, who will make up the next council on Bowen: Wolfgang Duntz, Alison Morse (incumbent), Andrew Stone, Daron Jennings, Tim Rhodes and Cro Lucas (incumbent).

Of those six none were strong supporters of an NPR and Duntz, Morse, Jennings and Lucas were on record as saying they would not vote for one. Stone and Rhodes were open to considering 'yes' but did not campaign for the establishment of an NPR. Duntz and Stone were also elected as Island's Trust Municipal Trustees.

Rejecting NPR supporters and electing a mayor and council more open to development (Duntz and Jennings are developers) may call into question the decision the outgoing council, lead by Mayor Bob Turner, made on the development of Cape Roger Curtis. Council chose not to accept the Neighborhood Plan, a massive package of amenities that included a 320 acre park.

In exchange for the park the developer, The Cape On Bowen, was asking for dramatically increased density on the rest of the 631 acre site, to include seniors and low-income housing. Council said no and Poole and Hooper and groups such as the Cape Roger Curtis Trust Society and the Eco Alliance, claimed overwhelming numbers of islanders supported a rejection of the Neighborhood Plan. Those claims are now open to debate.

The Cape on Bowen, now in the early stages of building 59 10-acre lots, have left open the door for talks toward creating a hybrid of the Neighborhood Plan should the next council wish to do so. After the wipeout of the park supporters, none of whom backed the Neighborhood Plan, the return of the plan in some form seems a possibility.

Meanwhile, the island will have to find a way to get beyond the 2011 municipal election. This is not a new scenario for Bowen, long an Island community that has had passionate supporters on two sides of an issue. The1999 vote on becoming a municipality, the creation of the island's golf course and the recent installation of an artificial turf field all cases in point.

The issues Mr. Adelaar highlighted were supported to one degree or another by candidates who backed the NPR and lost and may become a rallying point for cohesiveness. Further, other manners of ensuring the land under question in the NPR debate is left untouched were discussed during the election and may be acted upon.

The Island found this election a divisive one and the tone of the new mayor and council, and the work achieved, will determine the success Bowen finds in turning the page.