Historic Kamloops By-Election 2017

Yesterday - the nomination period for the City of Kamloops Council Sept 30th by-election for the vacant Mayor's seat and 2 City Councillor seats closed.  At the close of the nomination period, 6 people were nominated for the Office of Mayor - City of Kamloops and 22 people were nominated for the Office of Councillor - City of Kamloops.  View the full nomination list here

I note that former Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Kevin Krueger and former Kamloops City Councillor Nancy Bepple are among the 22 contestants for the 2 vacant Kamloops City Councillor seats

Usually - by-elections are very tame affairs, regardless of the level of government, however with the extremely large interest in both the open Kamloops Mayor's seat and the 2 open Kamloops City Councillor seats -- as an outsider, it tells me that there is general dissatisfaction among the electorate in Kamloops and this should be viewed as a telling sign for the incumbents (Councillors Singh, Cavers, Walsh, Lange, Wallace, and Dudy) who face a mandatory local election themselves next fall

According to Nancy Bepple's Twitter feed - there is a scheduled All Candidates Forum for the Seniors' of Kamloops on Monday, September 18th at 12 noon at Desert Gardens Community Centre (540 Seymour Street).  I am fully certain that Kamloops media will also organize an all candidates forum as well in September...

Kamloops Deputy Mayor Arjun Singh noted on his Facebook page:

Looking forward to a robust dialogue on many community issues and the great, diverse range of choices for Kamloopsians!

He also told Radio NL, in reference to the very large interest in the open Kamloops Mayor seat and the open 2 Kamloops City Councillor seats:

"It's the best job in the world and welcomes the strong interest in the by-election"

I personally will be watching closely to see how the race unfolds and see who is left standing on September 30th at 8pm...

~SF