“Campaign mode” underway?

“One side of the coin is that ‘Okay, maybe we’re passing it along here to the next Council. We can avoid this.’ Especially if some people on Council are running for re-election, a decision this way or that way might affect their ability to get re-elected.”

If that is indeed the case, Beach says, while nothing major may be decided prior to the next Council getting settled in, it takes time for a new set of faces around the table to get acclimated to the job.

“There’s just so much to know. Even in the last twenty years, there’s been so much downloading from the Province, for example, that the array of issues that a municipal Council in a city the size of Prine George is a lot.”

But Beach says there are some in the community with a very specific point to view when it comes to mayors and councillors and their civic obligations.

“One view is that ‘you’re elected for a four-year term and you are in power until the end of that four-year term.’ And some people are of the view that it doesn’t matter whether I’m re-elected or I’m running for re-lection, this is the job, the duty, that I’ve been given. And I’m going to make decisions right until the end of the term. That’s another way of looking at it.”

But McConnachie says she’s comfortable with waiting to make major decisions now.

“Everything is going to, and can, possibly change on October 15th,” says McConnachie. we’ve seen in the past couple of Councils that I’ve been serving, the dynamics change incredibly.”

So anything goes in this city’s civic politics over the course of the next five months, and Prince George residents head to the polls on October 15th.

by Cheryl Jahn

“Campaign mode” underway?

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