Ten candidates are vying to fill one vacant Richmond council seat in the May 29 byelection.
Three more candidates filed their paperwork Friday to secure the seat vacated by Kelly Greene when she was elected to the provincial legislature.
Kay Hale, who has run in the past provincially for the BC Conservative Party, has thrown her hat in the ring along with Jennifer Huang and Mark Lee.
Huang ran for city council in 2014.
So far, three candidates are aligned with municipal parties: Ken Hamaguchi is running with the Richmond Community and Education Party, Jonathan Ho is running with the Richmond Community Coalition and Karina Reid is the RITE candidate, but she is also being endorsed by the Richmond Citizens’ Association (RCA), which Coun. Harold Steves belongs to (RCA isn’t running its own candidate).
In the last election, RCA and RITE joined forces just a few weeks before voting day to support each others’ candidates.
In the end, RCA candidates Steves and Kelly Greene were elected as were RITE candidates Carol Day and Michael Wolfe.
Candidates Sunny Ho and Andy Hobbs have previously run for council with Richmond First – current Couns. Bill McNulty and Linda McPhail belong to Richmond First.
McNulty told the Richmond News that Richmond First won’t be running a candidate in the byelection. He said he will decide after Friday’s deadline whether or not he is backing any candidate, adding Richmond First hasn’t been approached to endorse any candidates.
Other candidates are John Roston and Dennis Page, who both also ran in 2018.
Mail-in ballots
The city was granted permission by the province to allow all voters to cast their ballot by mail because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Richmond residents can now request a mail-in ballot either online or, starting Tuesday, April 27, by phoning 604-276-4100.
The phone lines are open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Anyone who has lived in Richmond for 30 days and in B.C. for six months prior to registering, is a Canadian citizen and 18 years old or older can vote in the byelection.
Non-resident property owners can also vote in the byelection if they’ve personally owned property in Richmond for at least 30 days before registering. They also have to be Canadian, 18 or older and have lived in B.C. for six months. The property, however, can’t be wholly or jointly owned by a corporation, a business or an organization.
Whoever is elected to fill the council seat will be in office until the next general election in October 2022.
In addition to general voting day on May 29, advance voting will take place on May 15, May 19, May 20 and May 22.
More information is available at richmond.ca/elections.
