Kamloops This Week
Ken Christian rolled to victory in a byelection held Saturday to become the new mayor of Kamloops, while Kathy Sinclair and Ray Dhaliwal are the newest councillors.
Christian ran away wth the six-candidate mayoral race, garnering 64 per cent of ballots cast (9,274). Bill McQuarrie was next with 2,661 votes (18 per cent), followed by Stu Holland at 806 votes (six per cent), Todd Mcleod at 773 votes (five per cent), Mike McKenzie at 518 votes (3.5 per cent) and Glenn Hilke at 480 votes (3.31 per cent).
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Speaking to KTW at his Hotel 540 victory party, Ken Christian said the three-month break from council required to run for the mayorship has given him different look at the goings-on at city hall.
“When you’re in the council horseshoe, you’re confined by the rigidity of meetings and all that,” he said. “This has given me a fresh perspective on the city and the role of governance in this city. People are unhappy and they’ve expressed that to me — and I think there are some changes we can make.”
Christian said he wants to see councillors assigned to liaise with the city’s various neighbourhood associations on a rotating basis, so areas have a point of contact they feel they can go to with issues.
Sinclair finished first among 21 councillor candidates, with 3,421 votes, while Dhaliwal grabbed the second and final open seat, with 3,292 votes. Finishing on the bubble in third was Kevin Krueger, with 3,042 votes.
Sinclair told KTW her first priority will be to convince council to revisit the city’s deal with Recycle BC to get glass back into collection.
Dhaliwal told KTW his first priorities will be to get more Mounties downtown and to hold Venture Kamloops accountable for bringing more economic activity to the city.
When all ballots were counted, the turnout was 21 per cent, which is well below the 33 per cent turnout in the 2014 general civic election and the 32 per cent turnout in the 2015 referendum on the performing-arts centre.
There were 14,731 ballots cast in the byelection and 69,578 eligible voters. The Kamloops byelection included 12 polling stations on voting day, mail-in ballots and three days of advance voting.