EDITORIAL – Running for two elected jobs at the same time should be banned

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

LOTS OF FAMILIAR FACES will be on the civic-election campaign trail, and a lot of new ones, too. In some cases, it adds up to a 50 per cent turnover.

Some candidates are returning from a political break. Former Cache Creek mayor John Ranta is on the ballot against incumbent Santo Talarico, who defeated him in 2018, as well as a couple of others.

Another former mayor, Roland Stanke in Clinton, will try to unseat incumbent Susan Swan. And in Kamloops, Nancy Bepple is trying for a comeback on council. In the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, former Area L director John Taylor, who was defeated a few terms ago by Ken Gillis, is running again now that Gillis is retiring.

But, aside from the curiosity factor of familiar names, there’s another bit of trivia that’s worth examining. That’s the matter of candidates running for more than one office at the same time.

It’s been done before. Then-incumbent Kamloops councillor Donovan Cavers tried it in 2018, only to suffer losses in both the council and school board elections.

This time, newcomer Darrell LaRiviere filed papers both for Kamloops council and for the Kamloops-Thompson school board. And Clearwater councillor Shelley Sim will again run both for council and the school board. She’s already been serving both for a couple of terms, and will keep the school trustee job by acclamation.

These double candidacies trouble me. I don’t suggest they’re hedging their bets or looking for an extra job, nor do I question their sincere desire to do both things.

I do, though, think it’s difficult to serve two political masters at the same time. It seems to me we need people who are dedicated to one or the other.
Why not leave one of those jobs to some other worthy individual? The provincial government should pass legislation preventing anyone from running for two elected positions at the same time.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.