Blair Whitmarsh was re-elected to the Township of Langley Council on October 17, 2026, with 16,501 votes, third of the 20 candidates for the eight seats, in the Township's official results declared on October 21, 2026. The Langley Advance Times quoted him on election night: he said it was clear people wanted a change. The Langley Strong team won the mayor's chair for Jay Lundgren, six of the eight council seats and all five Township seats on the Langley Board of Education. The new Council's inaugural meeting is on November 2, 2026.
The Township's page for him says he served on Council from 2014 to 2022 and is beginning his ninth year. Its results pages give him 9,229 votes in 2018, 6,805 as a candidate for mayor in 2022, second to Eric Woodward's 10,911, and 3,107 of 5,904 ballots in the by-election of October 25, 2025, called after Councillor Misty Van Popta's seat was vacated by a provincial law that bars an MLA from sitting on a council. The Advance Times reported that outgoing mayor Jack Froese had endorsed him for mayor in 2022, and that on the by-election night he said he would work with councillors Margaret Kunst, Barb Martens and Kim Richter and that the majority could expect questions about spending and debt. On May 5, 2026 the paper reported that the four had joined Langley Strong. On his Langley Strong page he writes that each member keeps their own judgment on every vote.
The Township's page says he holds a BA in physical education and an MBA from Trinity Western University and a master's degree and a PhD in sport psychology from the University of Alberta, has been a professor at Trinity Western since 1996 and dean of its School of Human Kinetics and Athletics since 2003, co-chairs the Agricultural Advisory Committee, and sits on the Salvation Army Gateway of Hope community council and the board of Christian Life Assembly. It lists his past chairing of the Township's Community Forest Management Strategy and co-chairing of its parks and recreation and community and transportation safety advisory committees. By his own account he has lived in Brookswood since 1996, coached community soccer for years and wrote a book on the mental side of strength training. voche.me has not checked the university roles or the degrees with the universities.
Debt was his subject in the year before the vote. The minutes of the Regular Council Meeting of March 9, 2026 record his motion, seconded by Richter, directing staff to develop a long-term fiscal responsibility plan with debt reduction targets and timelines, a reserve replenishment schedule, a revenue diversification plan and a contingency plan for a development slowdown. Mayor Woodward's amendments, carried with Martens, Richter and Whitmarsh opposed, changed it to a staff report on the process and funding needed for longer-term projections, target reserve balances and revenue options, and added a report on revenue forgone by past councils; the motion as amended carried. On his page he writes that Council passed his motion and that it now has to be followed through. The same minutes record his vote against the 2026 to 2030 financial plan bylaw, and the Advance Times reported that he said debt servicing had risen to $53 million and was projected to reach $74 million by 2030, a projection Woodward said would not come true. In its report of June 17 on the Township's audited statements, the paper said he asked what the Township's net debt meant for homeowners.
The Advance Times reported that on June 15, 2026 he and Kunst voted against the Council Procedure Bylaw changes that lowered the vote needed to censure a councillor, saying a change made with four meetings left seemed politically motivated, and that in June he was the one vote against sending a farm owner's application for a private family crypt to the Agricultural Land Commission. On July 27 the paper reported that he, Kunst and Martens had opposed a closed-meeting decision to authorize up to $500,000 for the legal costs of Woodward and councillors Baillie and Rindt in a petition seeking their disqualification; the petition's claims had not been tested in court when the paper reported on it. Langley Strong's fire department fact check of October 10, 2026 says, citing the minutes, that he moved the June 2022 motion asking for full-time staffing at the Brookswood fire hall and the 2021 wildfire plan; that is the organization's account.
His campaign carried the six priorities of his 2025 by-election site: debt reduction targets with timelines and a reserve schedule, proactive infrastructure planning, housing options for young families, seniors and renters with a permitting process that stops adding cost to homes, expanded fire, police and emergency services, complete and walkable neighbourhoods with more transit, and decisions made in the open. In Langley Strong's releases he said the team would press the Province to restore fair property tax deferral for seniors and build a regional alliance for roads and transit. At the Fort Langley all-candidates meeting on September 21 he said wide public consultation should come before any decision on building heights in the village core, and at the Chamber of Commerce meeting on September 29 he said Glover Road holds up traffic across the Township and suggested widening it, the Advance Times reported.
