In roughly a year from now -- Chief Election Officers' from local governments in the Cariboo-Chilcotin will begin accepting nominations for the Offices of School Trustee, Electoral Area Director (Cariboo Regional District), Councillor and Mayor
This past Friday - PG City Councillor Brian Skakun 'tweeted' the fact that voters' should begin to think about putting their name forward for elected office next fall as the more names on the ballot, the better it is for our local democracies.
As you have already read in the Williams Lake Tribune - we know already that voters' in the City of Williams Lake & Cariboo Regional District - Electoral Area D - will be looking for a new City Councillor and Electoral Area D Director respectively
The Local Government Act lays out the timeline for the nomination period which is set to commence on August 30th 2014 as follows:
August 30th - September 30th, 2014 - Notice from Chief Election Officers for local elected offices to be filled and when individuals may file a nomination package with their local government
September 30th to October 10th, 2014 - Ten (10) day nomination period when people may file nomination packages for the Office of School Trustee, Electoral Area Director, Councillor or Mayor
Friday, Oct 10th at 4pm sharp! - Nomination Period closes. No further nominations can be accepted by the local Chief Election Officer or his/her Deputy
November 5th, 2014 - Advance Voting Opportunity
November 15th, 2014 - General Voting Day
Meanwhile - here's my personal take on next year's local government elections
Cariboo Regional District and Districts of Wells/100 Mile House -- Area D will have a new Director while we'll have to wait and see on the Directors for Areas A, B, C, E, F, G, H, I, J, K and L. Wells/100 Mile Councils could see full acclamation. Wells came within one candidate for Councillor of having no election in 2011 while the same was true in 100 Mile in 2011 with the 4 Councillors there being acclaimed and a fight for the Mayor's Chair. Mayor Sharpe and his Council in Wells have been fairly quiet and diligent workers so we may not see an election race, but rather acclamation and ditto for 100 Mile Councillors however Maureen Pinkney ran against current 100 Mile Mayor Mitch Campsall in 2011. Could she run again... time will tell.
Meanwhile within the Cariboo Regional District, my gut instinct tells me that Area F Director Joan Sorley will run again as will the Directors for Area G (Al Richmond), Area I (Jim Glassford), Area K (Chad Mernett), and Area B (Heloise Dixon-Warren). As for Areas A, C, E, J and L - Directors Armstrong, Massier, Kemp, William and Rattray are likely to think things over for the next year and decide if they have the 'fire in their belly' to continue on for 3 (maybe even 4) more years but to be fair - they don't have to make a decision until Oct 10th, 2014
City of Quesnel - Last election in 2011, there were 10 candidate for 6 Councillor seats while there were 3 candidates for Mayor. The last election in Quesnel was really a tame affair however one key question will be for Councillor Sushil Thapar and his 3 accumulated Censure Motions against him and whether or not those will hurt his re-election chances? Meanwhile - we'll all have to wait and see what election plans Councillors Roodenburg, Cave, Elliot, Brisco, and Coleman have but again, they don't have to make a decision until Oct 10th, 2014 but I expect many of them will have their minds made up well before then. I will be very surprised if Councillor Scott Elliot decides to quit after 1 term, especially considering he really seems to enjoy his role thus to date and does work hard (in my opinion) for the community of Quesnel.
Meanwhile - I expect Quesnel Mayor Mary Sjostrom will be thinking things over the next number of months and she will need to decide if she feels more work needs to be done and she needs to continue as Mayor while I expect there will be pressure on former Quesnel Councillor/Mayoralty Candidate Ron Paull to revisit running again in 2014, given he lost out to Mary Sjostrom in 2011
School District #28 - Last time out, we had 10 School Trustee candidates for 7 positions. It is likely that we'll see the same again in 2014. I don't expect a lot of fireworks in discussing the education issues in Quesnel, given School Trustee candidates really had next to no media coverage for their election race in 2011 and there hasn't been any real controversial decisions made by the SD #28 Board of Education in this term (2011-14)
City of Williams Lake - Last election in 2011, we had 3 candidates for Mayor and 14 candidates for Councillor. While the Councillor race was generally mild, the Mayor's race was active. On a personal note, I have already been approached to run next fall and have told individuals that I have different plans for next fall lined up. Many who have come to me have told me that they want to see changes on WL City Council given many of the topics discussed here previously including the City's 1st ever strike by unionized City employees, the fight with the Cariboo Regional District over Rural Fringe Fire Protection, the hiring/dismissal of Don DeGagne as the City's CAO, the fight with Horsefly, Big Lake and Miocene communities over the WL Community Forest and the misread of the public over the City brand marketing exercise aka the 'Republic of Life' marketing fiasco
We already know that Councillor Danica Hughes will not be seeking re-election while I expect Councillors Sue Zacharias and Laurie Walters will seek a 3rd term on WL City Council. As for Councillors Geoff Bourdon/Ivan Bonnell - I'm sure that they are talking it over with their families to see if they should continue or simply call it a day and get some 'fresh blood' on WL Council
Finally - After 20 years on City Council, I imagine that there is pressure on Councillor SPS Rathor to mount a Mayoral bid to unseat current Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook, although there is the 'dark horse' candidate to come along that we don't know about.
I expect that most who are planning on running in next fall's City of Williams Lake local election will have their minds made up by July of 2014
School District #27 - In 2011, we had 3 acclamations in Zones 1, 2 and 3 (South Cariboo Region) while Zones 4-7 (Central Cariboo/Chilcotin region) had election races. For 2014 - I believe we'll likely see acclamations in Zones 1,2 and 3 (South Cariboo region) and Zone 7 (Chilcotin) while Zones 4,5 and 6 will see challengers given the School Closures in Williams Lake and the disaster over the re-naming of the former Columneetza and WL Secondary Schools
Regardless of which community you live in -- if you are unhappy with your current elected official, call your local government (Wells, Quesnel, Williams Lake, 100 Mile, Cariboo Regional District, School District #28 and #27) and find out the time/pay requirements if you are thinking of running as it is better to know beforehand rather than getting elected and being disappointed afterwards
-- SBF
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