A former candidate for provincial office is officially shutting the door on any provincial aspirations for the moment.

Randy Sunderman, who previously ran for the B.C. Greens, is currently campaigning for a municipal council seat under the Pivot Kamloops banner.

With the snap provincial election now papering over the local race, it was likely that the BC Greens would have reached out to Sunderman to take the reigns on a snap election campaign, as the Green Party — like some of the others — thought they would have had at least two years to vet potential candidates.

“Yeah, for me, I’m running municipally, so I’m committed to that,” Sunderman confirmed in conversation with Radio NL.

“I’ve invested a lot of time and effort and resources now,” added Sunderman.   “People have donated to my campaign, so I’m invested in seeing it through on the municipal side.”

“You put so much time and energy… people are entrusting you to carry forward their views and visions, so you definitely wouldn’t want to betray that,” Sunderman explained.

“So, it’s going to be the municipal flag for me on this one, and I’m happy to be doing that now.”

While Sunderman is staying put, he does warn that one of the challenges he foresees for the provincial-level candidates is a general inability to find people to volunteer their time.

“I have some of the people that worked on the campaign with me last time [that] are helping me on my campaign, and I know that others are working on other candidates’ campaigns here in Kamloops right now,” he noted. “The people that are active in politics and campaigning and stuff like that, they’re — by and large — fully committed to the municipal election as well.”

At first blush, a lack of volunteers may seem a minimal concern.

Candidates who let that part of their campaign slide run the risk — if not filled out correctly — being declared ineligible for public office, which could cost a winning candidate their victory if they were to fall afoul of Elections BC campaign disclosure and spending rules.

With the campaigns overlapping directly — and the civic vote falling directly in the pre-voting window for the provincial election — there are added concerns about both voter fatigue and voter confusion heading into the polls.

“We’ve been out doing a lot of door knocking, and one of the things we’re trying to reinforce is get out and vote on October 17th,” noted Sunderman.  “I am concerned that we could run into a situation where the voting populations may be confused about when election starts and the next ends.”

“Right now, I have some of the people that worked on the campaign with me last time are helping me on my campaign, and I know that others are working on other candidates’ campaigns here in Kamloops right now,” he noted. “So, you know, the people that are active in politics and campaigning and stuff like that, they’re, by and large, fully committed to the municipal election as well.”

Sunderman says his Pivot Kamloops colleague, Dennis Giesbrecht, is also expected to stick to the municipal race for Pivot Kamloops, despite his showing in Vernon-Lumby two years ago.

Radio NL has reached out to Giesbrecht to confirm whether this is his intention.

But after the pre-election collapse of BC United Giesbrecht was subsequently tapped by the BC Conservative Party to contest the NDP-controlled riding of Vernon-Lumby (formerly known as Vernon-Monashee).

Despite being parachuted into the riding as an outsider at the 11th hour, Giesbrecht found a voice among voters in that riding, but would fall just under 500 votes short of flipping a NDP-held riding blue.

Had the original BC United candidate for that riding — former Lumby Mayor Kevin Acton — not kept his name on the ballot, there’s a solid likelihood Giesbrecht could have taken a large portion of the over 4,200 votes which were directed Acton’s way and made up the gap to deliver the riding to the BC Conservatives.