The Mayor of Waimakariri is the head of the municipal government of Waimakariri District in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. The mayor is directly elected using a

first-past-the-post electoral system In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting Score voting or ...

. The current mayor is Dan Gordon.

History

Waimakariri District was established as part of the

1989 local government reforms The 1989 New Zealand local government reform was the most significant reform of local government in New Zealand in over a century. Some 850 local bodies were amalgamated into 86 local authorities, made up of regional and territorial levels. Backg ...

. It was formed from

Rangiora Rangiora is the largest town and seat of the Waimakariri District, in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is north of Christchurch, and is part of the Christchurch metropolitan area. With an estimated population of Rangiora is the 30th largest urba ...

District, Kaiapoi Borough, Oxford County, Eyre County (based on Ohoka) and part of Hurunui County – although Rangiora District and Eyre County had already amalgamated earlier that year. The first mayor,

Trevor Inch Trevor ( Trefor in the Welsh language) is a common given name or surname of Welsh origin. It is an habitational name, deriving from the Welsh ''tre(f)'', meaning "homestead", or "settlement" and ''fawr'', meaning "large, big". The Cornish langua ...

, had been Mayor of Rangiora since 1986. He died shortly after resigning on health grounds in 1995. He was succeeded by

Janice Skurr Janice may refer to: * Janice (given name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) * '' Janice & Abbey'', a reality TV series * Processor codename of the Samsung Galaxy S Advance Android smartphone * Janice, Łódź Voiv ...

, who was in office 1995–2001. Skurr died in 2008. Former Member of Parliament Jim Gerard defeated Skurr in 2001 and was re-elected unopposed in 2004. In 2007 he was defeated by Ron Keating who in turn was defeated by David Ayers three years later, in 2010. Dan Gordon then became mayor in 2019, and was re-elected in 2022.

List of mayors

Waimakariri has had six mayors since its establishment in 1989.

References

{{Waimakariri District Waimakariri