The race is officially on for Richmond City Council and the Richmond Board of Education as a remarkable 52 candidates have thrown their hats into the political ring. There are 31 city council candidates (six incumbents), 19 school trustee candidates (five incumbents) and three mayoral candidates.
In 2011 just 29 people ran for public office.
The City of Richmond is currently studying the archives to see if it’s a record number.
Is it a case of quantity over quality? That's for you to decide.
On Nov. 15, voters will elect the top eight councillors, top seven trustees and the top mayor. Voters may choose to vote from one to 16 candidates, who will serve four-year terms, up from the past three-year terms.
Important issues should be brought to the forefront, such as: taxation, community engagement, city transparency, the protection of agriculture and the environment, City Centre development, gaming revenues, affordable housing and poverty, just to name a few.
Three residents will run for mayor: incumbent mayor Malcolm Brodie, an independent, and challengers Richard Lee and Cliff Wei, also an independent.
Lee has formed a political slate named Richmond Reform after running as an independent mayoral candidate in 2011, when he garnered 30 per cent of the popular vote.
Lee’s party is one of six slates in contention, which, again, could be another record.
The Reform party also has one council and trustee candidate, respectively.
The biggest council slate is the Richmond Community Coalition, which has six city council candidates, including two incumbent councillors, in addition to three school trustee candidates.
RCC is a newly formed organization, under the leadership of Rob Howard, a former member of Richmond First, the biggest overall slate in the election.
The well-established Richmond First organization is running five council candidates, including three incumbents, and five trustee candidates, also including three incumbents.
Renew Richmond is another new political slate. Renew has two candidates for council and trustee, respectively.
The long-established Richmond Independent Team of Electors has become RITE Richmond, which is running two council candidates and three trustee candidates, including two incumbents.
Meanwhile the Richmond Citizens’ Association will table one candidate for council (incumbent Harold Steves) and one candidate for trustee.
Then there are the independents.
Running for council are: Janos Bergman, Jerome Dickey, Lee Gildemeester, Jennifer Huang, Alexa Loo, Don Montgomery, Laura Nastasa, Roy Sakata, Patrick Saunders, Dave Semple, Kristian von Schalburg, Jun Wuyan, Henry Yao and Garry Yuill.
Running for school trustee are: Michael Cober, Mohamud Farah, Ken Hamaguchi and Sandra Nixon (update: Kay Hale resigned shortly after filing her candidate papers).
This election you can find out where to vote using the city’s new mobile elections app.
Updated election news can be found in the following places:
WHAT:
Our website at Richmond-news.com/Richmond-votes for detailed issues and announcements from candidates.
On Twitter @TheRichmondNews and reporters @WestCoastWood and @P_C_Raphael
Follow the hashtag #rmdelxn for up-to-the minute news.
Have your say. Visit facebook.com/RichmondNews to chime in on all the issues.
WHO:
For all the bios on candidates you can visit the Richmond News bio page here. (Candidates who are not listed have not submitted their bios).
