However, this changed in 2018 when members of the community created the New West Progressives party, who opposed the incumbent mayor, Jonathan X. Côte, and his allies in city council and the school board.
In light of this new opposition, an informal political alliance was formed by Côte with other like-minded candidates, including Patrick Johnstone, Chuck Puchmayr, and Jaimie McEvoy, which came to be known as Team Cote.
[3] In December 2021, most members of Team Cote decided to formalize their alliance and became a registered political party with Elections BC, and were founded as the Together New West Electors Society.
Despite being a member of the New Democratic Party, Chuck Puchmayr did not join Community First with many of his colleagues, and decided to run for mayor as an independent, citing a preference for non-partisan politics in New Westminster.
In the summer of 2023, Beattie was caught using a fake Twitter account to inappropriately reply to users who were critical of her work on the school board.