Dieter Dudy will run for Kamloops mayor this October (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

KAMLOOPS MAYOR'S RACE

Dudy announces run for Kamloops mayor, promises to get performing arts centre built

Apr 4, 2022 | 11:41 AM

KAMLOOPS — Two-term councillor Dieter Dudy has expressed his intention to run for the mayor’s chair.

Dudy made the announcement in front of his supports at Riverside Park on Monday morning. He’s the fourth person to join the race after fellow councillor Arjun Singh, Ray Dhaliwal and Reid Hamer-Jackson announced their intentions last month.

While he doesn’t have an official platform, Dudy says he’s committed to dealing with homelessness, the opioid crisis and business recovery from the pandemic.

However, his biggest promise on Monday was building the performing arts centre if he’s elected mayor.

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“It’ll be a reality on my watch,” promised Dudy. “We have to open up the discussion again and get things moving, but a Recreation Master Plan and it is the first thing on that Recreation Master Plan, so it is a priority. We need to put that forth, [but] allow the city to recover a bit and recognize we’re doing what we can to ensure they’re going to be taken care of.”

Two years ago to the day (Apr. 4) was supposed to be referendum day for a proposed $70 million performing arts centre. It was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since, the centre has jumped to an estimated $90 million — the price tag of the proposed 2015 centre that failed with 53 per cent of residents voting against the city borrowing $49 million.

It’s Dudy’s second time running for mayor. In 2011, Dudy joined the race to give Peter Milobar competition. He lost out by only 235 votes, but it gave him confidence he could become mayor one day.

“It gave me all sorts of confidence. Considering the main reason I ran so that Peter had somebody running against him, I knew I was never going to win that,” he said. “Getting as close gave me a lot of confidence and that’s when I decided I wanted to pursue public life.”

Dudy was elected as a councillor in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018.