For most of New Westminster's history, there were no municipal political parties. 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. Later that month, they renamed themselves as Forward New West, before being renamed once again in 2022 to its current name. Côte decided against running for re-election for the 2022 election, and endorsed Patrick Johnstone, who went on to win the party's mayoral nomination prior to the election. 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.[4]
In their first election, Community First would win the mayoral election, and achieved majorities in both city council and the school board.[5]
In 2023, the party was involved in a controversy surrounding Dee Beattie, a Community First member of the school board. 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.[6] Following the allegations, and an eventual apology from Beattie, the party cut ties with her. Beattie resigned from the school board on 26 September 2023.[7]
^Because Dee Beattie was expelled from the CFNW party before resigning, the by-election technically replaced an independent board member, and the party did not gain or lose a seat.[7]
