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Call for Montrose council candidates underway

A seat on Montrose council is up for grabs and the nomination period opens today.

A seat on Montrose council is up for grabs and the nomination period opens today.

Villagers won’t know until mid-December if the position will fill by acclamation or advanced to a January byelection.

But the mayor suspects it will be the latter scenario.

“A number of people have expressed interest and we’ve had a few take out papers,” says Montrose Mayor Joe Danchuk. “I think there’s going to be up to three people so there’s probably going to be a byelection,” he added. “And I think it’s good we are seeing interest at the local level.”

Nomination packages are available at the village office and budding politicians have until Dec. 11 to hand in the documents.

The applications are then vetted to ensure Elections BC guidelines were adhered to, such as each candidate must be nominated by two registered Montrose voters.

Once all t’s are crossed, each candidate is notified and given until Dec. 17 to consider if he or she still wishes to go ahead with the process.

The following Monday, the official list is posted and campaigning can begin.

“We won’t know exactly what the deal is until that day (Dec. 17),” explained Chief Elections Officer Bryan Teasdale, mentioning names will be made public Dec. 21. “Then we put notices up in the village to get the word out,” he added.

“We’ll have the list of candidates in the main office, on our bulletin board and the Montrose Facebook page.”

After that, it is up to the candidates to engage the voting body prior to the first advanced poll, slated for Jan. 6.

Though he’s looking forward to having a full council in the new year, Danchuk says it’s been business as usual in village chambers.

“Everyone has been attending and we’ve always have a quorum,” he said, referring to the October resignation of Mark Reid. “We’ve had enough for the vote and no issues have come up because of the shortage so far. But it will definitely be nice to get another person there.”

If last year’s municipal election is an indication of interest, when seven residents ran for council and two for mayor, villagers will have further advanced polling opportunities Jan. 14 and Jan. 15, before General Voting Day, Jan. 16.

“The schedule will work as it avoids significant election activity dates and possible conflict with the upcoming holiday season,” said Teasdale.

The winner will be announced the following Monday.

Village costs are estimated to be $1,500 if the seat is filled by acclamation (only one nomination) and about $4,000 if the process does go to a January byelection.

“I hope community minded people want to step forward and help council move ahead,” added Danchuk.

 



Sheri Regnier

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