There’s no lack of interest in civic election

WEDNESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — The civic election campaign can now be considered officially underway in Kamloops.

Incumbent councillor Nelly Dever officially declared Tuesday she’ll seek a second term. That means all incumbent councillors except one, and the incumbent mayor, will be in the running.

The exception is Nancy Bepple, who resigned awhile back due to health reasons, and she would have run, too, if she could.

Incumbents have a natural advantage in civic politics because of name recognition. Peter Milobar, Marg Spina, Ken Christian, Pat Wallace, Donovan Cavers, Arjun Singh and Tina Lange are familiar. The rest have to fight to be known.

At least two others say they will go after council seats, Daljit Sadra and Dieter Dudy. Sadra is not so well known but Dudy is. There will be others, both familiar faces and new.

What’s a little unusual is that there’s so much election focus this early in the game. The election is five and a half months away, and we already have 10 official candidates and several others who acknowledge they’re seriously thinking about it.

More will begin declaring themselves through the summer and there will be a flood in the fall leading up to nomination day. There’s good and bad in having a large slate of candidates — good in that it provides a broad choice, not so good in that it becomes a challenge for voters to learn what all the candidates stand for.

Either way, though, there’s obviously going to be no lack of interest in this year’s election.