Category: Local Election 26

Some criteria for evaluating those running for SA Mayor, Council & School Trustees

General Election Day is on October 17th 2026 with Salmon Arm 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 👉

Shaping our Future Salmon Arm!

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. Here’s a link to contact and social media resources they provided in their nomination filings. Note: A few candidates haven’t provided any links for the public to access – at least to date. https://www.salmonarm.ca/526/General-Local-Election You’ll have to do that legwork!

Aim High will be a part of sharing election info plus link to other All Candidates meetings, interviews, forums & questionnaires posted elsewhere. https://timlavery.ca/candidates-qas/ Stay tuned as our local election is ramping up.

Meanwhile, now’s the time to submit any Qs for candidates that 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

Next Steps … and Some Qs too!

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.

Contact me using the Contact tab above

Mayor: Announced Candidates for Salmon Arm Mayor *Updated Sept 11th 2026*

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.

  • Alan Harrison (Incumbent) –Announced & Filed
  • Daniel Bardy – Filed

Here’s the link for publicly announced Candidates for Salmon Arm Council seats (6 positions) https://timlavery.ca/2026/08/08/announced-candidates-for-salmon-arm-council/

Here’s the link for publicly announced Candidates for Salmon Arm’s two SD83 Trustee positions https://timlavery.ca/2026/08/08/announced-candidates-for-salmon-arms-school-district-83-trustee-seats/

Council: Announced Candidates for Salmon Arm Council *Updated Sept 11th 2026*

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 tally of those who have formally filed will be updated at the end of each day as the Chief Elections Officer updates the list (see link below). The official final confirmed list will be updated in mid-September. There are 6 positions on Salmon Arm council.

  • River Grabowsky – Announced & Filed
  • Marianne VanBuskirk – Announced & Filed
  • Owen Madden – Announced & Filed
  • Robin Wiens – Announced & Filed
  • Shelley Desautels – Announced & Filed
  • Morgan Turland – Announced & Filed
  • Scott Syme – Announced & Filed
  • Kari Toliver Wilkinson – Announced & Filed
  • Debbie Cannon (Incumbent) – Announced & Filed
  • David Gonella (Incumbent) – Announced & Filed
  • Louise Wallace Richmond (Incumbent) – Announced & Filed
  • Jo McDermott – Announced & Filed
  • Anthony McLean – Filed
  • Ian Gray – Filed
  • Adam Meikle – Filed
  • Vic Hamilton – Announced & Filed
  • Aaron Canart – Filed
  • Drayson Netzelwood – Filed

The nomination period to officially submit papers is Sept 1st – 11th. We’re likely to see further candidate announcements by the end of the 11th. During this formal nomination period, the Chief Elections Officer will regularly post at the end of each day who has filed their nomination papers. Here’s the city election page link to Who has formally filed! Also listed there is contact campaign info, websites and social media platforms that candidates may have provided.

See https://timlavery.ca/2026/08/10/hx-of-candidates-for-salmon-arm-council/ for the number of candidates who have run in our past local elections since 2008.

Here’s the link for publicly announced Candidates for Salmon Arm Mayor https://timlavery.ca/2026/08/08/announced-candidates-for-salmon-arm-mayor/

Here’s the link for publicly announced Candidates for Salmon Arm’s two SD83 Trustee positions https://timlavery.ca/2026/08/08/announced-candidates-for-salmon-arms-school-district-83-trustee-seats/