Who’s standing in the PRRD Area B by-election?: Learn about the candidates ahead of voting day

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Both candidates to replace Jordan Kealy within the Peace River Regional District (PRRD) say they hope to represent people who don’t feel heard or seen by the government.

The PRRD is holding a by-election this month to replace Kealy, who had to leave his role as Area B director after becoming the MLA for Peace River North in the 2024 provincial general election.

Reid Graham and Madeleine Lehmann both stepped forward as candidates to fill the Area B director role.

Graham, currently serving as the alternate Area B director, says he came to the region in 1991 from his parents’ farm in central Saskatchewan and fell in love with the community.

“I’ve worked in the oil and gas industry for about 35 years, as a mechanic and [doing] general contractor type stuff,” Graham says. “Now I’ve worked my way up, and I’m a regional manager for Enerflex here in town.”

Graham has been filling the Area B director role in the interim, and says he wants to fill it permanently to maintain continuity.

“I got the benefit of being Jordan’s alternate for the past year, so I’ve been exposed to lots of the different committees and programs that the PRRD works on,” he says.

Lehmann, meanwhile, first came to the Peace region as an international student at 17, where she met her future husband while spending the year at North Peace Secondary School.

Like Graham, Lehmann also has experience with local agriculture, having maintained a dairy farm in Cecil Lake for eight years before moving on to a grain farm where their family still lives and works today.

“I’ve been involved in a lot of different local volunteer boards,” she adds, “as well as, since 2018, I’ve been on the [School District 60] board as a trustee for Area 1, which is Clearview all the way out to the Alberta border.”

Lehmann has considered running for the Area B director position in the past, but “the time was never right” until now.

“I feel now, the time is such that I can commit the energy, the time, the involvement that it takes to do that,” Lehmann explains. “Living in a rural area, I see how important it is that our voices are heard.”

Lehmann wants to represent a rural perspective within the PRRD and ensure policies also benefit people living outside of major population centres like Fort St. John and Dawson Creek.

Graham, meanwhile, says he’s heard many people say they don’t feel heard in local government, and he agrees.

“I feel the same way, and sometimes it’s easy to complain about issues, but it was an opportunity for me to kind of give back to the area that I live and work in,” Graham says. 

PRRD Area B residents can vote in advance on Wednesday, February 19th, for the by-election. The main voting day is Saturday, February 22nd.

To see where and when to vote in the upcoming election, click here.