What kind of mayor will Kamloops get on Sept. 30?
KAMLOOPS – Letters of resignation have been received and, tomorrow, Kamloops City council will set Sept. 30 as the date for a by-election to choose a new mayor and two councillors.
It will cost City taxpayers $120,000 and questions remain about whether the whole thing is necessary. However, Kamloops voters can take comfort in knowing their city is likely to get a mayor who at least won’t embarrass them with scandals.
That sounds like faint praise but when the experiences of some other Canadian cities are considered, it’s no small thing. Many Canadian cities have put up with bad mayors, Toronto’s Rob Ford being only the most notorious example.
In his book Mayors Gone Bad, author Philip Slayton examines a litany of failures in the top civic job, among them Peter Kelly of Halifax, Gerald Tremblay of Montreal, Gilles Vaillancourt of Laval, Joe Fontana of London and Susan Fennell of Brampton.