(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - Several candidates have received endorsement from the Kamloops and District Labour Council after making it through the first round of interviews.

Barb Nederpel, the first vice president of the labour council, says after a round of ‘speed dating’ type interviews with several candidates last week they decided to offer endorsement to Peter Kerek, Dieter Dudy, Glen Thompson and Dustin McIntyre for city council and Adam Jensen for school board trustee.

A total of five potential city council candidates came looking for endorsement at the initial meeting last week and Nederpel said at the time they were not sure if they would be able to endorse all of them. The council will continue considering endorsements up through the Nov. 15 election though, so the group may reconsider endorsement for the other two candidates as well.

“We wanted to support the candidates who understand the concerns of working people and are willing to advocate for them,” Nederpel says. “We may not always agree on all issues, but we feel confident those candidates we’ve endorsed are committed to an open and respectful dialogue with the Labour Council over the next four years."

Endorsement from the council offers campaign support as well as financial support, though Nederpel notes they have not yet set an amount for the donations that will be given to the endorsed candidates.

“We do support them financially, and in campaign support,” Nederpel says. “(Endorsement) gets their name out to the middle class and working class. We take it very, very seriously.”

With Thompson set to officially announce his intention to run in the near future and Nancy Bepple announcing her intention earlier today the list of candidates for one of the eight city council seats is already up to 16.

The race for mayor currently includes incumbent Peter Milobar, Elaine Sedgman as Mr. Open Pitbelly and Ben James.

These numbers will not become official until nomination papers are filed between Sept. 30 and Oct. 10. Municipal elections will take place Nov. 15 and will see Kamloops vote for one mayor, eight councillors and five school trustees.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infonews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2014