JOHNSON – The vote for Kamloops mayor isn’t as simple as it might seem

SO, WITH KAMLOOPS municipal election mode fully underway, we (well, at least those of us that vote) all find ourselves falling into our well entrenched habit regarding what we usually do, to research and or make the decision as to who we are supporting.

But some of us might have realized that this one … although it may seem easy … is actually a tough one to figure out, and some might actually be feeling very conflicted.  There are opinions and directions of thought that make getting this done, fraught with fears of actually considering the ‘least worst’ options as the route forward.

This column isn’t endorsing any specific candidate, nor rejects any specific candidate.  If a reader or commenter reinterprets something said here, to create their own opinion that contradicts this statement above … that’s on them.

The information here is gleaned from a bunch of reading on Facebook, Reddit and other social media where people share their thoughts.  That’s about as far as anyone can get from statistics, formal polls or established media pundits, so let’s not assume any accuracy here.  These are public thoughts, by people hiding behind user names.  Still the tenor and tone is interesting.

The focus here is specifically on the election for mayor.

It’s easy to find threads everywhere condemning our present Mayor Reid Hammer Jackson (RHJ), and suggesting everyone under the sun as a better option for the vaunted but in-turmoil position of head duck at city hall.

It sounds like a very high percentage of commenters want RHJ gonesville,
that’s the headline with the strongest support … but …

Everyone seems to accept that the mayoral front runner is Mike O’Reilly.  There is also a strong low rumbling of discontent about Mike’s voting record during his time on Council and most importantly his quick acceptance and severe overuse of the Alternative Approval Process (AAP) as a way to get loans to pay for every single Council pet project.

I won’t go into detail about what this funding process is supposed to be used for, you can read that elsewhere, but suffice to say there is a massive groundswell of opposition to how it is being used.

Mike believes so hardcore in the AAP as a way to fund everything, that he and other incumbents jumped on this as a way to spend cash we don’t have, but that’s OK, they won’t be around when the interest rates and loan paybacks kick in.

That’s a common statement.

Let’s start with an actual verifiable fact; in the last two years, Kamloops Council has used the AAP to fund $300,700,000 worth of infrastructure.  Think about that number; we have not started paying that back yet.

Whether you like RHJ or not, he also is not a fan at all of the AAP process and has voted against it, but I don’t have numbers on the details there.

Of interesting note, on Aug. 11 a vote in Council occurred to initiate an AAP for a new RCMP station in the first quarter of 2027.  Previously it had been discussed to get this done in 2026, but it was decided to hold off on it until ‘after the election’ … yes, they actually said that … the reason – pre-election optics.

For some clarity….

Voting for this motion – Councillors O’Reilly, Bass, Hall, Karpuk, and Middleton.
Voting in opposition – Mayor RHJ, and Councillors Neustaeter and Sarai.

It carried.

There are a loud group of potential voters using the AAP as the divining rod for who they will consider voting for.  This is a group that are very unhappy with the inappropriate type of project it is being used for, the dollar amount accessed by it, and the City debt load taken on because of it.

Furthermore, the idea that Council will not vote to initiate an AAP at a time when the voter is paying attention to and could respond negatively at the ballot box towards individual Council members … when an actual spending referendum could have been added in time to our ballots … is a cliff too far for some.

What they hear is Council waiting until it’s three years before the next election, and then saddle the city with a bunch more debt without appropriate community input, when many voters aren’t paying attention.

Optics.

So here we are … vote for RHJ and go through four more years of what we have had, or vote for O’Reilly and be guaranteed to have things like the AAP ramrodded through for every pet project that comes up.

Other options, please?

So, we have Nelly Dever.  She’s heading up the ‘Pivot Kamloops’ slate of candidates for Council.  Many comments surround the idea that the last thing a place like Kamloops needs is party politics in our municipal government and comments like ‘no one wants any kind of a block vote in council that will just be oppositional to anything everyone else wants to do, and sidestep personal responsibility for voting as an individual’ abound … suggesting at look at larger cities like Vancouver or senior governments when party politics takes over, and democracy and individual responsibility stops working.

The historic preference has been to vote in individuals to municipal jobs and hold them to account. Interestingly, many municipalities in Ontario do not allow formal political groups, requiring candidates to run strictly as independent individuals.

Some say we need this rule here in B.C. to lock out parties like this, as well as to stop the brewing Conservative party currently carving inroads to municipal governments around the province.

So, as Dever is running under a party idea like this, she is attached to every candidate she is running with, and there seems to be some distaste towards a couple of them … so it doesn’t sound good for this group at all. She should have run alone, some say.

We otherwise have previous Council member Ray Dhaliwal, social worker Kris Lloyd-Middleton (apparently if we believe Google AI, not related to Margot Middleton) and contractor Ivory Winston.

The volume of candidates for mayor some say suggests a voter short-term memory that forgets that this is how ‘we got into this mess’ with the vote split amongst a few too many popular candidates running for top job.

The idea that RHJ slid up through the middle and got the most votes, landing Kamloops in the spot it is in, is solidified amongst the public regardless what side of the RHJ coin you are on.

Soo … vote RHJ and let’s do this again, or vote O’Reilly and accept the world he will likely create at City Hall, limiting public input and an AAP spending spree, or vote for party politics in Kamloops, or for another candidate and possibly split the vote again with the open future that awaits.  That’s the mayoral race in a nutshell.

Council candidates quickly:

Incumbent Council candidates also run the gambit of being on some groups’ hit list, as these voters either fully support RHJ, therefore blame every other Council member for the problems, or don’t support RHJ or anyone on Council for a range of reasons … including the inappropriate use of the AAP … and want a completely new sheet of people in the horseshoe.

Some commenters are talking about a few of the new unknown candidates on the Council member list as wholly problematic, ranging from openly or closet RHJ supporters, or some are called online bullies (one of which I have experienced myself) or ‘odd’, or just plain old ‘crackpots’ and ‘nutjobs’.

Everyone else is selling themselves using the usual plethora of politic talking points, using soundbite codes like: ‘restoring civility at city hall’, ‘fiscal responsibility’, ‘community safety’ and ‘economic vitality’, or the real goodie ‘addressing street disorder and homelessness’ … without saying how.

Not so simple as voting for someone you think is nice or effective … isn’t it?

David Johnson is a Kamloops resident, community volunteer and self described maven of all things Canadian.