The B.C. municipal election is still two months away, but there is already an election buzz in Keremeos.
Word is circulating that a number of residents have taken out election packages at the Keremeos Village office.
We are hearing, even at this relatively early date, that up to seven new candidates may throw their hats into the ring for council and mayor positions this year, not including the incumbents who are running again.
We think that would be a positive step for democracy in Keremeos - but we are also aware there could be pitfalls accompanying that many candidates vying for seats on council.
A few of the candidates we have spoken with appear to have identified one or two issues as worthy causes to run for.
Unfortunately, one or two issues do not a council make.
We hope these new candidates make themselves aware of the duties and responsibilities of council, and prepare themselves for the whole job.
Keremeos also has its “hot button” issues - the transient farmworker and downtown improvement issues are two examples.
Like a prospector mining a creek bed that has been worked repeatedly over the years, these new candidates get involved in the political scene in the hope they will be the ones to uncover the “nugget” that provides a solution to one of these perennial issues.
Similarily, the creek that has been mined over and over again and these long-running issues have a tendency to glean fewer new “nuggets” as the years go by. It’s political territory that has been throughly worked over from an intellectual standpoint.
However, in many cases, insufficient research by these new candidates results in the public being subjected to a rehashing of the same old failed ideas that have been bandied about the town forever - a waste of time that really does nothing to advance the political process.
We hope the candidates that come forward during this election prepare themselves accordingly, by researching the issues thoroughly beforehand.
They need to be appropriately armed with a thorough understanding of the issues. It will make them better candidates, even if they don’t have a solution to the issues that enticed them into the poitical ring in the first place, because they won’t be wasting the public’s valuable time.