First, it was Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine, and now Logan Lake Mayor Robin Smith have both decided to put their name in the hat for Mayor, despite original plans to not run for re-election in the October municipal election.
Robin Smith explains the reason for her change of decision was due to several reasons, including a change in life circumstances.
“When I made the decision to go ahead and announced that I was not going to be running this fall, at that time we actually had an accepted offer on our home, and obviously the market has changed since then, some things haven’t come together quite the way that we had planned, and that is no longer in the cards for us.”
She adds that for the foreseeable future, she and her family will be in Logan Lake for the foreseeable future.”
“I cannot imagine being here and sitting back and watching. So with that in mind, we talked a little bit more and I have decided to go ahead and throw my name in the hat for another term.”
If elected, Smith says there are a lot of projects on the radar that she would like to carry out with council, with community relationships being one of the top priorities on the list.
“There are a lot of really good partnerships that we have built over the years and I feel like we really need to go back and rebuild on some of those because a lot of those relationships have been lost throughout COVID. So, I think that’s a really big thing to focus on just rebuilding the relationships.”
If elected in the fall, Smith says she is eager to work with the rest of council and administration to support the entire community.
It comes after Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine also decided to put his name in the hat. Smith adds she is very happy to hear the news.
“Sun Peaks will be very, very well served; and I am glad to hear that he will still be there.”
Meanwhile, while Al Raine was originally planning to retire, he has also changed his mind because of changing circumstances.
Originally Raine explains he thought Sun Peaks councilor Rob O’Toole would be putting his name in the hat for Mayor.
“The last few weeks, all of a sudden Councilor O’Toole saying all of a sudden he just can’t find the time and he has a business that has just started up in the last few years, and he has been very happy doing that.”
Currently, no other candidates have put their names forward to run for Sun Peaks Mayor.
“There may still be somebody who puts their name forward to run as Mayor, that would be kind of playing a little bit of chicken right down to the end so I’m sure someone would have come forward but at this point, it’s just reflecting where the community is at.”
Raine has been the only Mayor of Sun Peaks in the history of the resort village, adding that he believes he can help the community move forward over the next four years.
If re-elected in the fall, Raine says he will seek help from his fellow councilors.
“One of the things is the workload has increased tremendously in the last four years, and I would make sure every councilor has a major role on some of the major issues (in Sun Peaks.)”
