Reid Hamer-Jackson elected mayor of Kamloops

KAMLOOPS — He came in with no political experience, but it didn’t matter to the Kamloops electorate who have voted Reid Hamer-Jackson into the mayor’s chair at city hall.

“That’s why I’m running because too many people in this room have come up to me, long before they ever thought I was running for mayor, were saying ‘We’re moving out of town,’” Hamer-Jackson told the crowd of supporters at Mt. Paul Golf Course. “But I’ve been dealing with this for 12 years and really strong over the last four years.”

Hamer-Jackson led from the beginning when the advanced results rolled in around 8:30 and didn’t look back.

“I think I can make a big difference and I think we can get a safer community. I really believe it,” he said. “I’ve been working on it for four years, but nobody’s been listening. Like they say, if you can’t fight city hall, so you may as well help run it.”

Hamer-Jackson has ran mainly on community safety, hoping to turn around the shelter system and take the city back.

“First thing we have to do is get control of the shelter system. We need to have accountability. There’s huge discrepancy in the number of people who are in shelters. They’re not as full as we think,” he said.

Dieter Dudy, the second-place finisher 1,648 votes behind, was the first to congratulate Hamer-Jackson at his headquarters.

“He’s in for an incredibly steep learning curve because he has not governance experience. He needs to learn how to work with the staff that are there currently to try to come up with solutions about how he’s going to be moving ahead with the agenda he has,” said Dudy.

EARLIER: Kamloops has chosen its new mayor.

Reid Hamer-Jackson emerged from a field of five contenders to win Saturday’s (Oct. 15) mayoral vote.

Hamer-Jackson defeated former councillors Dieter Dudy, Sadie Hunter and Arjun Singh, and former councillor Ray Dhaliwal.

Hamer-Jackson finished with 31.61 per cent of the vote, followed by Dudy (24.47 per cent), Hunter (19.83 per cent), Singh (12.7 per cent) and Dhaliwal (11.39 per cent).

Hamer-Jackson will succeed Ken Christian, who opted not to let his name stand for re-election. Christian had served as the city’s mayor since winning a by-election in 2017.