(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

Perhaps it’s fitting that Reid Hamer-Jackson will be the first Kamloops mayor since 1964 not to be photographed with the official Chain of Office.

He was chosen by an electorate fed up with crime and lawlessness on its streets, expecting him to make a difference. The chain itself was stolen in a break and enter at Kamloops City Hall in 2021.

The man already being dubbed Kamloops’s Donald Trump defeated three versions of Hillary Clinton, established incumbent insiders who all thought they had a path to mayor. Arjun Singh was councillor for a long time, knew well what a good mayor does — and thought voters cared. Dieter Dudy had a slick campaign, no shortage of cash and the support of the political power players and no one cared about that either. Sadie Hunter courted a different voter who cared about having a woman as mayor; there weren’t nearly enough of them.

They all touted their experience. Leadership. And none of that mattered.

While they worked hard the past four years on being “good” councillors and arguing over small matters, Hamer-Jackson was on the street campaigning, not for mayor necessarily, but for solutions to the single biggest issue on the minds of the one-third of voters who bothered to cast a ballot — crime.

It was a theme throughout many cities this election — incumbents deemed ineffective at the one issue voters want dealt with most. Councillors and mayors convinced themselves there’s absolutely nothing they can do about crime and homelessness. For four years, they all pointed fingers, even after Kamloops city hall itself was broken into.

I’m mostly convinced they are correct and there’s very little municipal government can do. We expect far too much of mayors and councillors, who are largely neutered by legislation lest they decide to do something truly creative. Before they ever raise a hand to vote, they’ll all get training about their roles, taught to recognize the walls of the box they are in. By the end of training, they should realize just how little power they actually have.

Marshall Jones, managing editor

That’s what worries me most. Voters spoke loudly. They want to feel safe and secure. They expect changes that mayors and councillors just can’t provide.

And we wonder why voter turnout rates are so pathetic.

Tom Dyas in Kelowna faces the same pressure. Crime was a central tenet of his campaign, which is what voters wanted to hear. 

There’s not much they can do. Former Kelowna mayor Walter Gray knew his powers as mayor well. He was mayor in the early-2000s and he faced a similar problem. Crystal meth had just hit the streets and there was crime and tweakers all over the streets. Not one to sit on his hands, he helped push through video surveillance throughout the downtown, just to do something. It was controversial, challenged in the courts and as far as I can tell, completely ineffective in either deterring crime or providing evidence of crimes.

He got voted out in 2005 anyway.

All of our Interior cities contract to the RCMP for policing and that’s not going to help our issues. They’ve got enough problems with a lack of resources, funding and culture problems. Mayors are third or fourth on the list of masters they serve. We don’t have police boards.

New Penticton mayor Julius Bloomfield should also pay close attention. He wasn’t elected on the same standard but he was nearly defeated by a man known primarily for patrolling the streets to combat property crime. Voters sent a clear message to outgoing mayor John Vassilaki; Bloomfield was simply the nearest adult, and by the slimmest of margins. He would be wise to recognize this. 

I hear plenty of healthy skepticism and real doubt about how effective either mayor will be at meeting their goals. But I actually have some hope.

If anyone is going to figure out where to break out of the boxes, it might just be a mayor like Dyas or Hamer-Jackson for simply refusing to recognize the walls.

Say what you will about his plans for a treatment centre or the likelihood it will ever happen, but Hamer-Jackson has plans and goals. He and Dyas will need the cooperation of their councillors to get anything done and that’s no guarantee. There’s been blood spilled in both pools.

But if councillors are finally paying attention to the voters they will give the new mayors plenty of runway. They’ll stumble, it might even be embarrassing, but they deserve a chance or two to try something.

As I said, I don’t like their chances — and that should terrify the NDP, the real losers of municipal elections. The provincial government holds almost all the cards in this game and if they can’t bring some peace to our streets, there’ll be a bloodbath in the next provincial election.

— Marshall Jones is the Managing Editor of iNFOnews.ca

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