Kamloops mayor gets first challenger a year from election

Municipal elections are a year away and Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson now has a challenger in Kamloops.

Coun. Mike O’Reilly announced his bid for mayor today, Oct. 2, introducing a “Kamloops first” platform.

Backed by his family and his campaign team, O’Reilly announced his bid for mayor on the steps of city hall this morning.

He has long planned for the mayoral run and backed out of plans to do so in 2022 when other candidates announced ahead of him.

“There was already a councillor on the ballot, I didn’t want to split the vote,” he said. “I didn’t think it was good for the community to run for mayor at that time, as much as I wanted to, and that’s why I’m an elected official is to do what’s best for the community and put Kamloops first.”

He said there have been rumours about who will put their names forward against Hamer-Jackson and his name is among them. O’Reilly said he wanted to put those rumours about him to rest and “provide predictability” to voters.

Hamer-Jackson, who was elected in a 2022 five-person mayoral race, made his announcement more than a year ago when he invited reporters to a “resignation related” news conference that ended with the crowd heckling a journalist.

Not only did he promise he wouldn’t leave office, he said he would run again in 2026.

O’Reilly, now in his second term on council, is the first person to put his hat in the ring against the incumbent.

Compared to the last election, O’Reilly’s announcement came far earlier. In March 2022, former councillor Arjun Singh was the first to step forward at that time. Announcements from two other city councillors, Hamer-Jackson and businessman Ray Dhaliwal trickled in ahead of the summer campaign. Then-mayor Ken Christian did not run again.

There was a 30 per cent voter turnout on that election day, and Hamer-Jackson won the five-candidate mayoral race with 7,298 votes, less than a third of the votes cast.

Hamer-Jackson was not immediately available to respond to a phone call. Asked about O’Reilly’s announcement, he said via text message, “Surprise, surprise.”

Since 2022, Kamloops council has been marked by controversy and a dysfunctional mayor. O’Reilly said he would bring stability to council chambers if elected and focus on what he believes constituents want from their municipal leaders.

“The last three years have been chaos,” he said. “It’s time to stop the bickering, it’s time to stop the fighting and it’s time to put an end to the chaos. The chaos will end when I become mayor in 2026.”

Municipal election day is Oct. 17, 2026.

— This story was updated with comments from Coun. Mike O’Reilly at 12:32 p.m., Oct. 2, 2025.