Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet File Photo

Walter Gray rode a wave of change as he was elected mayor of Kelowna Saturday

You can bet 13 is Walter Gray's new lucky number.

Trailing Sharon Shepherd all night, Gray and his supporters had to wait through several anxious moments while the large advance poll numbers were tabulated and finally released.

It wasn't until that advance polling station, number 13, was reported that Gray finally caught and passed her.

Gray, Mayor of Kelowna from 1996 until 2005, won by a margin of 421 votes (13,995 to 13,574).

He lost his bid for a fourth consecutive term to Shepherd in 2005.

Saturday, at age 71, he reclaimed the mayor's chair in a sweeping change that saw five new councillors join Gray on council.

Only veteran councillors Andre Blanleil and Robert Hobson and second term councillor Luke Stack retained their seats.

Gerry Zimmermann, Gail Given, Colin Basran, Mohini Singh and Maxine DeHart, all first time candidates, join the three veterans around the council table.

"I'd like to be mayor of the council that appears on the screen right now," Gray stated of the eight that made it to council.

As for the near house cleaning, Gray says change was definitely in the air.

"The public obviously reacted to the FourChange movement if you can call it that. The movement for change is there."