General Election Day is on October 17th 2026 with Advanced Voting on Oct 7th & 13th with the campaign period officially beginning on Sept 19th.
Originally posted as a series of tips for prospective candidates to reflect on, these tips may also be helpful for voters in deciding who’s really ready to take on leadership roles in our local government. Perhaps you can also ask candidates about these aspects. As a voter, you can easily access all those posts by clicking on Tips below a relevant post content 👇 or in the Category Cloud in the far right column 👉
Elections are all about available choices & options in real time. It’s helpful to recognize that candidates don’t run with or even against perfection. It’s more about candidates’ abilities to make the best decisions for SA amidst complex and often imperfect options. Given that, its so important to understand who our candidates are #SalmonArm
Candidates will have their own election campaign channels but here’s a link to contact info they provided in their nomination filings. Note: A few candidates haven’t provided any links at least to date. https://www.salmonarm.ca/526/General-Local-Election
Aim High will also link to other All Candidates meetings, forums & questionnaires as they’re announced. Stay tuned as our local election is set to soon ramp up.
Meanwhile, now’s the time to submit any Qs for candidates you may have. Use the Contact Tab at the top right to submit your own Qs. Questions should be worded in a general way so that all candidates for mayor or council or school trustee can respond. Thx
The campaign period starts on Sept 19th after the deadline for candidates to withdraw is reached. Here’s what’s next Aim High wise!
Aim High will be a community hub (hopefully there’ll be others) that features 3 portals to Q&As being asked in the community: (1) A go-to for links to what other media (SA Observer, FriAM etc) and community organizations are posting (2) Qs from the public that are sent to AHSA. See https://timlavery.ca/candidates-qas/ for how to submit to Aim High. My commitment is to ensure that these questions are fair, respectful and apply to all of the candidates. (3) A few short questions from me – mainly on governance-related matters – to all candidates in all of the 3 local races. These Qs will start to rollout in the next ten days or so after the start of the campaign period and will be batched up here as posts.
While the relaunch of AHSA is focused right now on our upcoming Salmon Arm local elections, there’ll always be a potpourri of local and regional posts. The Tabs at the top (the look of AHSA) as well as the content of posts will shift after these important local elections.
Got some soulful eyes (or more likely OK where’s dinner) pet shots? It’s time to refresh my stock of “… Stare at you until you vote” photos for use here on Aim High leading up to the election. Use the Contact tab at the top to reach me me and I’ll add your images to the photo carousel Thx
Running from today Mon Sept 14th to Fri at noon, UBCM provides invaluable opportunities for local government elected officials to learn, connect and decide on policy initiatives for the future. The learning aspect is done through keynote speakers, seminars and panels on current issues relevant to local governments. There’re also opportunities to meet with provincial ministers and various ministry staff. UBCM is an incredible opportunity for the newly elected to *start* to get up to speed as well as a venue for more seasoned politicos to refine their understandings and even contribute to leadership on these provincial directions. #SalmonArm has been active in all these aspects!
In terms of policy direction, there are 229 resolutions up for debate/adoption. They can be found here https://www.ubcm.ca/sites/default/files/2026-08/2026%20UBCM%20Resolutions%20Book.pdf One aspect that is often unclear to the public is that voting on these resolutions is based on those who actually attend the conference resolutions sessions. It’s not a function of what any local government table may have supported or not.
The procedural process for dealing with these resolutions is too lengthy to detail here but it works. The process culminates with UBCM reporting back to the membership the responses from higher levels of govt to the adopted resolutions.
The full UBCM program schedule is here. https://www.ubcm.ca/2026/program For me, UBCM has been the most valuable learning tool I’ve had!
I’ll update this list regularly as public announced statements are made and/or nominations are filed and posted – in order (as best as can be determined). If you’re a candidate who’s publicly announced but I’ve missed you, please let me know! The official final confirmed list will be updated in mid-September.
Aim High Salmon Arm 