FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Long-term city councillor Trevor Bolin will seek to keep his seat as councillor in Fort St. John. Several more candidates joined the race in districts and municipalities across the Peace region.
In Fort St. John, Lilia Hansen is so far the only candidate for mayor. The city’s current mayor, Lori Ackerman, said she would not run again in June.
Councillors running in Fort St. John so far include Bolin, Lyle Goldie, Sarah MacDougall, Amy Cox, Gary Patara and three incumbents Jim Lequiere, Byron Stewart and Gord Klassen.
School District 60 now has three candidates for its school board. Incumbents Madeleine Lehmann and Ida Campbell will be joined by new candidate Tom Whitton.
In Dawson Creek, three-term councillor Shaely Wilbur will run against first-term councillor Darcy Dobe for the mayor’s chair.
Dawson Creek’s current mayor, Dale Bumstead, announced his early retirement on Tuesday, effective Friday, September 9th, 2022. This news comes after he told council he would not run again last February.
Dawson Creek currently has nine candidates running for seats on the council: incumbents Amy Kaempf, Jerimy Earl, and Charlie Parslow will run as well as newcomers Aaron Rogers, Sue Kenny, Kyle MacDonald, Raistlin Van Spronsen, Mike Sudnik and April Cire Floriant.
Two candidates are running for school board trustee in School District 59: Chad Anderson for rural areas surrounding the city and Roxanne Gulick for Tumbler Ridge.
Tumbler Ridge, so far, has three candidates for mayor: Don McPherson, Rick Consalvi, and Darryl Krakowka. The district has two candidates for council: Roxanne Gulick and Chris Norbury.
In the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality, incumbent councillor Kyle Andrews is joined in his bid for a council seat by newcomers Kristi Leer and Fred McLachlan.
Mayor Gary Foster will seek to keep his seat as mayor in the NRRM.
In the Peace River Regional District, newcomer Jordan Kealy has registered to run to represent Electoral Area B after Karen Goodings said she would not run again over the summer. Kealy is joined by incumbents Brad Sperling running in Electoral Area C, Leonard Hiebert running in Electoral Area D, and Dan Rose running in Electoral Area E.
Incumbent Janet Wark is the first candidate to register to run for council in Chetwynd.
The District of Taylor has one more candidate for council after the long weekend: incumbent Michelle Turnbull joins incumbent Betty Ponto in seeking to remain on the council. Brent Taillefer, a previous member of council, will run for mayor after incumbent Rob Fraser announced he would not run again this year.
