The race for municipal seats in the Alberni Valley has officially begun.
The city of Port Alberni and Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District have both released their declaration of candidates for the October 20 election.
Six nominees will be vying for the title of mayor, including incumbent Mike Ruttan, former mayor John Douglas and current city councillors Sharie Minions and Denis Sauvé. They will be joined by hopefuls Kevin Wright and Gary Robertson.
22 candidates have submitted their nomination forms for the offices of councillor, including incumbents Chris Alemany, Ron Paulson and Dan Washington. Only Jack McLeman will not be seeking re-election.
Both Hira Chopra and Cindy Solda, who served as city councillors prior to 2014, will also be running for election in 2018. They will be joined by a number of newcomers:
- Aaron Brevick
- Rosalind Chapman
- Ron Corbeil
- Seva Dhaliwal
- Rick Ethier
- Debbie Haggard
- Karl Hamagishi
- Jerome Luchka
- Michael Moore
- Todd Patola
- Char Patterson
- Kris Patterson
- Matthew Pearson
- Helen Poon
- Blain Pouliot
- Helen Robertson
- Brayden Witte
In the ACRD, only three incumbents are running for re-election: Tony Bennett (Electoral Area C: Long Beach), Penny Cote (Electoral Area D: Sproat Lake) and John McNabb (Electoral Area E: Beaver Creek). Other candidates include:
- Bob Beckett (Bamfield)
- John Adams (Beaufort)
- Ted McGill (Beaufort)
- Tanya Shannon (Beaufort)
- Kel Roberts (Long Beach)
- Don Anderson (Sproat Lake)
- Celia Stocker (Beaver Creek)
- Dianne Bodnar (Cherry Creek)
- Darren Deluca (Cherry Creek)
Twelve hopefuls will be running for school trustee in the Port Alberni area. Only one incumbent—Pat Dahlquist—will not be running for re-election.
- John Bennie
- Cherilyn Bray
- James Brook
- Rosemarie Buchanan
- Erin Cootes
- Pam Craig
- Jane Jones
- Karrine Magnussen
- Larry Ransom
- Rebecca Standley
- Chris Washington
- Connie Watts
In addition, three candidates will be running for school trustee in area 2 (Tofino, Ucluelet and Bamfield):
- Gurmail Aujla (incumbent)
- Sandra Leslie
- Sally Mole
A candidates “Meet and Greet” event is scheduled to take place at the Italian Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 25 from 6-8 p.m. The Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce and Albern District Labour Council will be holding two all-candidates’ forums on Wednesday, Oct. 3 (for councillors) and Thursday, Oct. 4 (for mayors). Both of these will take place at the Italian Hall from 7-9 p.m.
In addition, Alberni District Secondary School will also be holding an all-candidates foum on Wednesday, Oct. 3, scheduled to start at 2 p.m. This will be open to the public.
For the latest municipal election news, check out www.albernivalleynews.com/municipal-election.