Reid Hamer-Jackson has been elected mayor of Kamloops, joining four new councillors, three incumbents and a returning councillor.
He got 31.61 per cent of the vote (7,298) beating out Dieter Dudy who finished with 24.47 per cent of votes (5,650).
“I never thought I was gonna lose,” he said. “When I get into a race… doesn’t matter if its a boxing match — I used to be a boxer — it didn’t matter what it was. I never get into it to lose, right.”
Dudy, who stopped by Hamer-Jackson’s victory party to congratulate him, said he was disappointed by the result, believing his opponent tapped into an anger vote.
“I’m concerned that people aren’t just aware of what’s going on within their own community, and they just base their decision on emotion,” Dudy said.
Sadie Hunter finished third with 19.83 per cent of the vote (4,578), Arjun Singh was fourth with 12.7 per cent (2,932), with Ray Dhaliwal rounding out the ballot with 11.39 per cent of the votes (2,629).
A resident of the Tournament Capital since 1973, Hamer-Jackson has owned Tru Market Truck and Auto Sales on West Victoria Street since 1994.
Joining him on council will be the three incumbents Bill Sarai, Mike O’Reilly, and Dale Bass, former councillor Nancy Bepple, and newcomers Katie Neustaeter, Kelly Hall, Margot Middleton, and Stephen Karpuk.
“Congratulations to Mayor Elect Hamer-Jackson,” outgoing mayor Ken Christian said, in a tweet on Sunday morning.
“I commit to an orderly and seamless transition in the Mayor’s Office. The time for campaigning is over, the time for leadership and building a strong Council team now begins. I will help in anyway I can.”
You’ll be able to find the full results here.
WAS VOTER TURNOUT A FACTOR?
Despite the city electing a first-time candidate as the mayor, one of the biggest surprises on election night in Kamloops was the apparent apathy of the electorate.
This year saw just over 80-thousand people in Kamloops (80,025 estimated by the City) eligible to vote.
In the end, 23,218 put pen-to-paper, despite the fact a new mayor and at least 5 new councillors would be elected.
Losing mayoral candidate Dieter Dudy suggests he is somewhat baffled by the turnout.
“The fact that we only had a 29 percent turnout, where I expected it was actually going to be much, much higher given the fact that people were so concerned about things that were going on, it makes you wonder just how much people actually care about what is happening in the community,” said Dudy.
“I’m hoping in four years from now Kamloops will understand they’ve gotta vote,” said re-elected councillor Dale Bass. “This is what matters. This is the thing that touches them every single day, and I do not understand why they don’t get off their asses and get out there and vote.”
This year’s voter turnout of 29.1-percent is a full percentage-point below 2018. (30.1-percent)
–With files from Paul James
