Kamloops residents now know who is likely to be on the ballot in the Oct. 15 municipal election.
The list of candidates is below.
Candidates have until Friday, Sept. 16, at 4 p.m. to withdraw from the race and have their names removed from the ballot. While candidates can withdraw, no more names can be added, as the deadline to file was Sept. 9.
As of now, five people have filed to run to succeed Ken Christian as mayor. Meanwhile, 23 people have put their names forward for one of eight seats on council and 11 people are hoping to be elected to Kamloops-Thompson school board, which has five local positions.
MAYORAL CANDIDATES:
• Ray Dhaliwal
• Dieter Dudy
• Reid Hamer-Jackson
• Sadie Hunter
• Arjun Singh
COUNCILLOR CANDIDATES:
• Jamie Allen
• Dale Bass
• Nancy Bepple
• Bonnie Cleland
• George Dersch
• Dennis Giesbrecht
• Mac Gordon
• Kelly Hall
• Stephen Karpuk
• Caroline King
• Francois Lambert
• Darrell LaRiviere
• Margot Middleton
• Daphane Nelson
• Katie Neustaeter
• Mike O’Reilly
• Jordan Proctor
• Reo Rocheleau
• Jesse Ritcey
• Taj Sandur
• Bill Sarai
• Darpan Sharma
• Randy Sunderman
SD73 CANDIDATES:
• Marian Anderberg
• Shahriar Behmanesh
• Heather Grieve
• Cole Hickson
• Jimmy Johal
• Jo Kang
• Kathleen Karpuk
• Darrell LaRiviere
• John O’Fee
• Karla Pearce
• Jennifer Rowse
In the surrounding area, three mayors will be acclaimed, as they have no challengers: Al Raine in Sun Peaks, Ward Stamer in Barriere and Barbara Roden in Ashcroft.
Longtime Cache Creek mayor John Ranta, who lost in the 2018 election, is back to try to reclaim his office. Ranta is facing incumbent Mayor Santo Talarico and incumbent councillors Annette Pitman and Wendy Coomber.
In Clearwater, Mayor Merlin Blackwell is being challenged by Dean Clifford.
In Merritt, Mayor Linda Brown has three challengers: incumbent Coun. Tony Luck and former councillors Mike Gaetz and Mike Bhangu.
In School District 73, 11 candidates are seeking five City of Kamloops trustee seats, while the remaining four school board seats will see incumbent rural trustees acclaimed, as they have no challengers. These include Diane Jules in the Chase area, Rhonda Kershaw in the Barriere area, Cara McKelvey in the Savona area and Shelley Sim in the Clearwater area.
In the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, the three electoral areas that border Kamloops will feature ballot battles, with incumbents in all three areas not seeking re-election.
Electoral Area L (which includes the area south and east of Kamloops, including Knutsford and Pritchard) has Doug Haughton facing John Taylor. Electoral Area P (which includes areas and north of Kamloops, including Paul Lake, Pinantan Lake and Heffley Creek) has Lee Morris facing Carla Barrett. Electoral Area J (which includes Cherry Creek, Tobiano, Logan Lake and Savona west of Kamloops) has a three-way race: Michael Grenier, Corinne Lebourdais and Michael McKelvey.
Of the remaining TNRD electoral districts, four directors have been acclaimed due to no challengers: Herb Graham in Electoral Area N (Nicola Valley South), Jill Hayward in Electoral Area O (Lower Thompson), David Laird in Electoral Area M (Nicola Valley North) and Lee Onslow in Electoral Area B (Thompson Headwaters).
