Mayoral runner-up Dever, outgoing councillor Bass reflect on election night losses

“Four of those five people aligned with the Pivot Kamloops platform, so I’m very happy.”

Dever also said she is “excited” for Randy Sunderman, who was part of the Pivot Kamloops team.

Sunderman won the eighth and final spot on council, and Dever said he’ll bring “a strong fiscal lens” to the council table.

“When we see five new faces, that’s a majority, which is great,” she added. “Randy has tried to be on city council before and we understand – and most people understand – it’s hard to unseat an incumbent. It’s really difficult to cross that finish line.”

(Image Credit: Kent Simmonds/CFJC Today)

Outgoing two-term councillor Dale Bass is officially retired and delighted that O’Reilly was elected mayor.

“This city deserves a mayor who knows how to be mayor,” Bass said. “This city deserves a mayor who can build the team and not try to tear it down. This city deserves a mayor who has forward thinking, not backward thinking.”

Incumbent Reid Hamer-Jackson finished fourth and will be a one-term mayor. He told CFJC on election night that he feels democracy has been challenged in Kamloops, and hinted this might not be last time people hear from him.

“We’ve got lot of work to do in the city and I still want to work to get a safer community and accountability,” Hamer-Jackson said. “One thing I really learned is without accountability, we’ll never get a safer community.”

Dever has every intention of staying “very close” to city hall, saying she’ll be happy to support all of council these next four years. She hopes the voters of Kamloops follow suit.

“It’s really important we move Kamloops in a positive way,” Dever said. “It’s important we get rid of that lack of civility and decorum and everybody holds true to what their platform was and our community… [gets] behind our city council and we regain what we’ve lost over the last four years.”

With both Bass and Nancy Bepple falling short, the new Kamloops council will consist of seven men and two women.

“That’s unfortunate because it’s not very representative of the city, but that’s what the people voted for,” Bass said.

In a statement, Bepple said it was “a total honour” to serve as councillor for the last four years and six years before that in her two previous terms.

“[The] best was connecting with community, making sure diverse voices were heard and working on projects that will out live us all,” Bepple said. “Thank-you to everyone’s support, not only in this election, but for all the time I’ve been a councillor.”

“Congratulations to the new mayor and council. Kamloops will be well served for the next four years. Kamloops is a great city and we will go far.”

In a statement of his own, two-term councillor Bill Sarai, who also came up short, said while Saturday’s results were not what he expected, “democracy and getting people out to vote is paramount.”

“To all the newly-elected councillors, including my current colleagues who are returning, congratulations on a job well done,” Sarai said. “Looking forward to seeing you all work together and move our city forward as we continue to grow.”

Bass said she is also looking forward to seeing how the five new councillors adapt to their new roles, adding her advice to them is to not expect things to happen quickly in municipal government. She said that was something she also struggled with eight years ago.

She also said her proudest accomplishment in office was her continued advocacy for better access to affordable childcare.

“When I first raised it with Mayor [Ken] Christian, he said, ‘Stay in your lane, Bass’ and I said, ‘Why?’ and he said, ‘That’s not a municipal issue.’ I said, ‘It’s an economic issue and I’m going to take it forward,'” Bass recalled.

“We went from, ‘Stay in your lane, Bass’ to we’ve got an RTE [revitalization tax exemption] for it, we’ve got an engagement group, we’re lobbying the government, we’re pushing forward on it, and we’ve got our own childcare centre. I’m really happy with that.”

by Victor Kaisar

Mayoral runner-up Dever, outgoing councillor Bass reflect on election night losses

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