An occasional roundup of 2022 municipal election coverage, comments and quirks:
• You are invited to the 2022 Kamloops Civic Election Forum. The forum will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. in the Grand Hall at Thompson Rivers University. The forum — co-hosted by KTW, CBC Radio Kamloops and Radio NL — will follow the format of the highly successful 2018 civic election forum, and will feature a mayoral session, followed by groups of councillor candidates taking to the stage in 20-minute increments to answer questions from the public. You can attend in person and ask a question of the candidates or you can catch the forum online via KTW’s Facebook page.
• Councillor candidate Nancy Bepple is once again organizing a seniors election forum for councillor and mayoral candidates. It will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 28, at noon at Desert Gardens Seniors Community Centre, downtown at 540 Seymour St.
• Council candidates Darpan Sharma, Caroline King and Dennis Giesbrecht have formed an informal coalition. Although they have not registered with Elections BC as a political party, they intend to share a platform and vote together on that platform should they be elected to city council.
• Former Kamloops mayor and former Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake has been endorsing candidates during this municipal election. He has endorsed Dieter Dudy for mayor and councillor candidates Katie Neustaeter and Mike O’Reilly.
• What’s in a sign design? Daphane Nelson (council candidate) said she chose the colour sage green for her campaign signs in order for them to be unobtrusive and blend in with Kamloops’ landscape.
• Many people who run for council often attend city council meetings in advance and get up to speak during the public inquiries portion of the meetings. Reid Hamer-Jackson (mayoral candidate), Randy Sunderman (councillor candidate) and Darpan Sharma (councillor candidate) are among candidates noticed by KTW attending city council of late.
• Councillor candidate Margot Middleton originally hails from Kelowna and was apparently Kelowna Teen Town Mayor in the early 1970s and went on to be premier of the North Okanagan Teen Association. Ralph Warner, owner of Warner Rentals, has endorsed Middleton, who has pledged to donate her $40,000-plus councillor salary to charity if elected.
• Councillor candidate Randy Sunderman is on TikTok (@sundermanforcouncil) and has posted bloopers from his campaign trail.
• Incumbent Coun. Dale Bass has posted several times about basic income on her Facebook page. Basic income is regular government payments to citizens without strings attached, similar to how the CERB worked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
