This story has been amended to add a response from Lisa Muri that came in after deadline.
Friday, April 15, marks six months until municipal Election Day, and North Shore voters can expect to see a lot of familiar names on the ballot.
The North Shore News reached out to all 21 mayoral and council incumbents to see if they are planning to run again.
At the District of West Vancouver, Mayor Mary-Ann Booth will be seeking a second term. Couns. Sharon Thompson, Peter Lambur, Bill Soprovich and Nora Gambioli all responded that they are planning to be on the ballot. Coun. Craig Cameron said he was still undecided, and Coun. Marcus Wong did not answer the question, but said he would “be making an announcement at a later time regarding my plans for the fall.”
So far, the only announced challenger for the chain of office in West Vancouver is Nigel Malkin, who is running on the Civix West Vancouver slate.
At the City of North Vancouver, Mayor Linda Buchanan is also seeking a second term. Five of the six council incumbents – Angela Girard, Jessica McIlroy, Tony Valente, Holly Back and Don Bell – confirmed they will be running again. Only Coun. Tina Hu did not immediately respond to the question.
District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little confirmed his plans to run again. The makeup of the rest of the council ballot is less clear though, with Couns. Jordan Back, Lisa Muri and Jim Hanson confirming they plan to run again. Coun. Mathew Bond said he is still undecided, and Couns. Megan Curren and Betty Forbes did not immediately respond to the original request sent on Friday or a followup email sent Monday afternoon.
General election day is Saturday, Oct. 15.
The nomination period starts on Tuesday, Aug. 30, and is open until Friday, Sept. 9, but we are already in what Elections BC defines as the “election period,” when candidates running for council must log all expenses incurred to include them in their campaign finance disclosure statements.
Campaign donations from individuals and third-party sponsors are capped at $1,250, and corporate and union donations are prohibited.
