Prince George wanted change in municipal election: Bond

A new Mayor and five new Councillors are coming for the City of Prince George, following the results of last night’s (Saturday) municipal election.

“I think that the people of the City of Prince George clearly wanted a significant degree of change, but it also gives us a sense of hope as we look to the future,” said Former MLA and Political Analyst Shirley Bond. “I think the bar will be very high for this Mayor and Council as the people of Prince George look to them to tackle some of those issues that are very critical to them.”

With nine candidates running for Mayor in Prince George, the City had the largest number of people seeking the top spot on Council across the province.

“You always face a vote split when that happens,” Bond said. “It does not diminish Mayor-elect Frizzell’s ability to get people to the polls, I think he ran a strong campaign, it resonated with the people of Prince George, and I can tell you that the splitting of the vote between nine candidates certainly would have helped as well.”

It was a relatively tight race for Mayor, with Garth Frizzell receiving 5,310 votes, good for 27.9 per cent of the vote. Simon Yu followed with 24 per cent, while Kyle Sampson was a close third with 23.3 per cent.

“Garth Frizzell has talked about his ability to create teams, to lead teams, so he now has that responsibility, the people of Prince George will be looking for him to do just that,” Bond said.

Frizzell’s new team will have plenty of fresh faces on it. Incumbent candidates Brian Skakun, Trudy Klassen and Cori Ramsay were re-elected, while Nicole Fraser, Dan Pears, Dan McLean, James Steidle, and Bob Radloff will sit as first time Councillors.

“Garth Frizzell has a lot of experience, not just at the Prince George Council table, but he’s been involved in municipal organizations that connect federally and provincially as well,” Bond said. “He will bring that expertise to his role as Mayor, and I think that one of the key messages sent to these new Councillors from the people of Prince George was we want you to work together, roll your sleeves up as a team and get stuff done.”

Bond said people are going to want to see progress on issues related to the downtown.

“When you think about a lot of the questions about the public forums, they were related to the situation in the downtown, what are we going to do,” she said. “I think also this Council and Mayor Frizzell will need to continue to build relationships at the provincial level with an election coming up provincially in just a week, we may well be facing a new government at the provincial level as well. We need to make sure that Prince George’s voice is heard in Victoria and in Ottawa, so that we get the kind of attention that we deserve in northern B.C., that is the Mayor’s job, as well as the Councillors, and they need to make those voices heard at the provincial and national level.”

According to CivicInfoBC, 19,057 ballots were cast out of an estimated 64,314 eligible voters, good for a turnout of about 29.6 per cent.

“I think one of the things we want to do is continue to try to increase voter turnout and voter engagement,” Bond said. “I think we’re going to see that, as a result of [Saturday’s] election, that those numbers have increased, but there are still probably three-out-of-four eligible voters who do not vote, and I think we have to ask ourselves about why that happens, and what it’s going to take for people to use their voice, and their vote is their voice.”

There was a slight increase from the previous municipal election in 2022, when a 26.2 per cent voter turnout was recorded.

“That’s good news, but there’s more work to be done,” Bond said. “I think we have to ask ourselves some hard questions about why people feel so disengaged from the electoral process.”

Official results will be published by Wednesday (October 21).

The inauguration ceremony for the newly elected Mayor and Council will take place on November 2 at City Hall.