Spullumcheen Mayor Christine Fraser is one of six Thompson-Okanagan mayors acclaimed to office this year. This photo is from 2014.

Image Credit: Township of Spallumcheen

Six of the 37 B.C. mayors who will return to their jobs by acclamation after the October 15 election are in the Thompson-Okanagan.

Of those, only Sun Peaks Mayor Al Raine has been there before, having been acclaimed as mayor of B.C.’s first Mountain Resort Community in 2014 and 2018.

In fact, he’s been mayor of Sun Peaks since it was incorporated in 2010. He had announced that 2018 would be the last time he ran.

READ MORE: 37 B.C. mayors win by acclamation after standing unopposed

For other regional mayors, acclamation is new to them.

Those include:

Barbara Roden was first elected to Ashcroft council in 2014 and was elected to the mayor’s chair in 2018.

Ward Stamer has served on Barriere council since it was incorporated in 2007 and was elected mayor in 2018.

Coldstream’s Ruth Hoyte topped the polls when she first ran for Coldstream council in 2018 and was unopposed after she filed her nomination papers for the mayor’s job this year.

Martin Johansen has been acclaimed as mayor of Oliver after defeating incumbent Mayor Roland Hovanes in 2018. Hovanes, himself, had been acclaimed in 2014.

Blair Ireland has served for the last eight years as Okanagan Centre's ward councillor. He takes the mayor seat after the other contestant, Barry Rhodes, dropped out last week.

Christine Fraser was first elected to Spallumcheen council in 2009 then shifted to the mayor’s chair in 2018. As with the others on this list, she was unopposed this year.

In the rest of the region, there are some tough races for mayor and some not so tough.

In Kamloops, for example, three sitting city councillors and one former councillor are in the running to replace retiring Mayor Ken Christian.

READ MORE: Experienced people running to replace Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian

In West Kelowna, in contrast, a man who finished last in the 2018 council election in neighbouring Peachland threw his name in the ring at the last minute to challenge incumbent Gord Milsom.

READ MORE: West Kelowna Mayor Gord Milsom challenged at last minute

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