O’Reilly elected as mayor of Kamloops as incumbent Hamer-Jackson finishes fourth

KAMLOOPS — A two-term Kamloops councillor is moving into the mayor’s chair.

Mike O’Reilly was elected mayor of Kamloops Saturday (Oct. 17) night, defeating five contenders: incumbent Reid Hamer-Jackson, former city councillors Nelly Dever and Ray Dhaliwal, and political newcomers Ivory Winston and Kris Lloyd-Middleton.

O’Reilly finished with 44.15 per cent of the mayoral vote. He stayed in the 40 per cent range throughout the evening, and was the top vote-getter this year with 13,235 votes.

He told CFJC his first priority is to meet with the remainder of the new Kamloops council.

“I plan on meeting with each of the elected officials – incumbents and new – to get an idea of what they are wanting to see individually and then we’ll meet as a council and get to know each other,” O’Reilly said on CFJC‘s live broadcast.

“[We’ll] start team building and move right into strategic planning. That’s incredibly important and that will be our north star for the next four years.”

Former councillor Nelly Dever, who led the Pivot Kamloops slate, finished second with 6,969 votes, or 23.25 per cent. Fellow former councillor Ray Dhaliwal was third with 3,916 votes (13.06 per cent).

Incumbent Reid Hamer-Jackson will be a one-term mayor of Kamloops, as he finished fourth with 3,548 votes (11.83 per cent).

“When I see [Mike] O’Reilly with such a lead I really wonder why people don’t want a safer community or accountability and I think that democracy has been challenged in Kamloops,” Hamer-Jackson told CFJC.

“I think it’s unfortunate because right from the get-go, councillors had a council-media communication strategy and I think it’s worked, so I don’t think the citizens get a real picture.”

While he won’t be in office, Hamer-Jackson also hinted at this not being the last time that Kamloops residents hear from the outgoing mayor.

“I think that we got a lot of work to do in the city and I still want to work to get a safer community and accountability,” Hamer-Jackson added. “The one thing I really learned is without accountability we’ll never get a safer community.”

Winston finished in fifth place with 1,374 votes (4.58 per cent) while Lloyd-Middleton was in sixth place with 938 votes (3.13 per cent).

(Image Credit: City of Kamloops)

CFJC will have more on the Kamloops mayoral race on Monday, Oct. 19.