I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who supported my run for Sea Cliff Village trustee this past week. It was a difficult process, to say the least, but I am grateful to have had the chance to help make Sea Cliff an even better place.

Looking at the vote itself a little more closely tells an interesting tale. Once more, there was a higher turnout than usual, 1,114 voters, especially for a non-mayoral race. Having more and more people directly involved in government is one of the New Village Party's prime goals and we achieved it.

We knew from the outset that this would be a hard race, especially against two incumbents. Still, just shy of 40 percent of the voters gave a nod my way. That sends a powerful message yet again. A significant portion of people want a two-party system and can see its benefits.

In fact, I heard it over and over again, from both sides, that two parties have made for better government this past year. The improvements are obvious.

Further still, the Civic Progress Party was able to roll out 837 loyal voters, as evidenced by the vote for the unopposed judicial candidate. Yet one of their trustee candidates only mustered 705 votes. What does that say? To me, the number of split votes says quite loudly that the CP base is weakening and that the NVP base is growing.

What I felt most happy about, though, was the level of public support that was given. People are starting to stand and say, in full view, that they support a healthy exchange of ideas, that they don't support attempts to assassinate character and silence others and they are not afraid to speak out.

Yes, the village is getting better. Yes, the New Village Party is here to stay.

Dom Candido