At 8pm this evening, the transition in Sun Peaks from the era of Al Raine will officially come to an end.

Voting is underway in the Mountain Resort Municipality in the local by-election to replace the man who spearheaded the drive to turn it into the community its since become.

Polls to elect both the new mayor and a councillor opened at 8am and will remain open for twelve hours at the Sun Peaks Centre on Village Way.

The outcome of the vote to replace Al Raine — the only mayor Sun Peaks has known since incorporation as a Mountain Resort Municipality in 2010, is not in doubt.

Raine’s heir-apparent, Rob O’Toole, is set to be acclaimed as the only person to submit a nomination form to take over the mayor’s chair.

However, there are four candidates running to fill O’Toole’s position around the council table, as O’Toole was a sitting councillor before stepping up to replace Raine.

As such, he had to resign his seat as per BC’s municipal rules.

Two men and two women are vying for O’Toole’s position.

It’s difficult to tell at this point just how many people are eligible to vote.

During the last municipal election in 2022, there were 922 registered, eligible voters, based on the previous census.

However, were undoubtedly many who did not participate in the last election, or find themselves as resident property owners, and are thus afforded a vote as well.

There are now roughly 1,600 permanent residents in Sun Peaks, with an estimation by the Chief Administrative Officer that there could be around 2,000 people eligible to vote as both residents and property owners.

There was one day of advanced voting on March 26th, which saw 72 people turn out early to cast their vote.

It’s expected the results of this evening’s election should be known fairly quickly after the polls close.

The winner of the council race will join Julie Kimmel, Len Hrycan and Kelly Dye around the five-person council chambers.

The three existing councillors were newly elected in 2022, as only the soon-to-be-mayor and the late-mayor, Al Raine, were the only incumbents who stepped up to run again.

When the polling station closes at 8pm, Rob O’Toole will officially be the mayor-elect of Sun Peaks and will launch his public duties on Wednesday when the municipal budget will be up for public debate.