City council can be an act of public service or a springboard for a political career full of prestige, and candidates the Okanagan and Kamloops are trying to convince voters they’re in it for the public service.

The election is in full swing and dozens of candidates around the region are talking about why they want to be your mayor or one of your councillors, but it’s hard to tell whether they’re being honest with their answers.

Former councillor Michele Rule was elected in 2005 and she said there are people who run out of a genuine desire to help the community, and others, not so much.

“There are still people running who are good people and want to make the city better. Then I see some people and I wonder why they’re in it,” she told iNFOnews.ca.

Rule had been on a strata council, parent advisory council and a neighbourhood association before she ran for city council. She said she enjoyed serving the community and wanted people like herself represented in city hall.

“Truthfully, at that time, I didn’t see anybody that represented me on council. I was a young woman with young children,” she said.

It’s sometimes easier to see people’s motivations in their actions rather than their words on the campaign trail, she said.

“What have they done outside of their work to give back,” she said. “Has this person been really working hard to make the community a better place, even without the recognition of being on council… if it’s all work all the time, then maybe they should just keep working if they love it that much.”

Davis Kyle, a candidate for Kelowna city council, is running for a second time after he placed ninth in 2022.

He told iNFOnews.ca the problem is that most of the time you only find out someone’s true intention after they win and abandon their post to try to win a seat in the provincial or federal government.

“Someone who runs and is elected, but then halfway through their first term tries to run for another job, whether it’s to be an MLA or an MP,” he said. “That’s more about trying to climb a ladder as opposed to representing your constituents.”

There’ve been numerous examples of city councillors who have quit to run for higher office.

Penticton city councillors Amelia Boultbee and Helena Konanz left city hall after being elected to higher office, leaving two vacant seats on council for a large chunk of the term.

Outgoing Kelowna city councillor Loyal Wooldridge ran an unsuccessful campaign for MLA in 2024 and finished out his term on council.

Rule said there have always been people in it for prestige and ambition, but someone with a track record of public service and thoughtful, specific ideas about how to improve the city is more likely to be in it for the right reasons.

“Councillors don’t have to be quick on the draw, they don’t have to be incredibly well spoken, but they have to have ideas,” she said. “Everybody puts safe streets, clean up garbage, better transit, whatever. Everybody puts those kinds of ideas out, but that’s not a good idea.”

Former MLA and Penticton mayor Dan Ashton is running to get his old job back in city hall.

Ashton’s candidacy announcement mentioned that he’d been getting a lot of calls asking him to run and “retirement and I have not become friends.”

“I’m not being facetious, my phone has run off the hook over the last six or so months… and I don’t want to retire… I want to continue to give back,” he told iNFOnews.ca.

Ashton said the wrong reason to run is to push a specific agenda because a good city leader is one who collaborates with other leaders and serves the public’s needs as they come up.

“There’s a lot more than a specific agenda that has to be addressed in an operation the size of Penticton,” he said. “The leadership of council have to work together. And they have to work together for the betterment of all the residents of Penticton.”

ForChange Kelowna is a volunteer committee evaluating candidates and it asked them why they decided to run and published the answers in one place to make it easy for voters in Kelowna to see for themselves.

Kyle said the only true test comes after the election is decided.

“The best you can do is really hold yourself accountable if you are elected. All I can do in the conversations right now is say, ‘look, I’m different. I hold myself to my values.’”