‘No incumbents’ attitude looms among Kamloops voters with election campaign underway

Kamloops voters are tired of the drama between local politicians, and some are taking a scorched-earth approach.

The headlines out of city hall for the past four years have been dominated by conflict between the mayor and council. A growing sentiment of fatigue appeared to start around halfway through the term and it will likely have an impact at the ballot box.

“I’m hearing it from every borough in Kamloops,” council candidate Kathrine Blair-Wunderlich said. “People are saying with the dysfunction at city hall, they all need to go.”

Though there are no polls to quantify how common the idea is across the city, Blair-Wunderlich said she has heard it from voters of varying political stripes at many of the doorsteps she has stood in recent days.

She was surprised at the frequency of the refrain, adding that there were outliers who hold support for at least one of the nine city council incumbents.

“I’m getting the feeling that it’s an actual movement,” she said.

Dealing with a dysfunctional mayor is far from the only topic for city council since 2022, but it has been the common theme over the years and it started immediately after Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson took office.

With the election campaign picking up speed, vandalism of candidate signs has already begun.

Councillor and mayoral candidate Mike O’Reilly posted a photo to social media this week showing three signs covered with spray paint.

“If you have something to say, say it at the voting station — not with a spray can,” he said in the social media post.

Campaign sign vandalism happens in most elections, but it may be symbolic of a sentiment among Kamloops voters.

The ballot choices for next month’s local election is expected to have all nine incumbents, with O’Reilly taking on Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson for the mayoral seat. The remaining seven are seeking another council term.

More than a dozen new names could be competing against them for council seats, while the mayoral race is expected to include four people in total.

Whether voters might actually clean house is yet to be seen, but former mayor Ken Christian cautions against that sort of sentiment.

“One of the things that’s terribly important is experience,” he told iNFOnews.ca. “I think we’ve seen what happens when you put people into positions that have no experience and real connection to the organization they’re proposing to run. You end up with headaches.”

Christian said that’s important because city council work can span multiple terms, but also because Hamer-Jackson’s term on council has been chaotic and rife with controversy.

Hamer-Jackson was elected with no civic experience, which was a selling point for voters in 2022, but his unwillingness to work with council or follow government procedure has been both difficult and expensive at city hall.

Jeremy Heighton, North Shore business association executive director, questions whether frustrations with the last four years will dissuade voters or encourage them to turn out, but he hopes it’s the latter.

In 2022, just 29 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote and Hamer-Jackson, for example, won with 7,298 votes. He is urging more voters to cast a ballot this year, adding that there is no requirement to use all nine votes.

“Just find one person that you want to vote for. Every single vote matters,” he said.