Frankly Speaking

Frank Bucholtz photo This instruction to voters was posted all over Sierra Leone (in West Africa), as voters there prepared to vote in a presidential runoff election in March. As noted near the bottom of the poster, the Government of Canada (i.e. Canadian taxpayers)  helped to support the voter education process. The runoff election went very smoothly. If democracy can be that resilient and powerful in Sierra Leone, it most certainly can be the same in B.C. The shouting is almost over. The signs, somewhat reduced in number, will be coming down. Surrey and White Rock voters will elect new councils and a new Surrey Board of Education on Saturday. The same process will take place in Delta, Langley City, Langley Township and municipalities across B.C. It has been a unique civic election campaign. Here in the South Fraser region, there is the very unusual prospect of electing four new mayors. Longtime Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner, White Rock...

Lois Jackson has been an integral part of Delta council for 45 years, the last 19 as mayor. She announced Monday that she is seeking another term as a councillor in the Oct. 20 election. This post has been updated to include all candidates who filed nomination papers. Four years ago, Delta voters didn’t get a chance to elect their mayor. Longtime Mayor Lois Jackson won the post by acclamation – an extreme rarity in civic politics in most B.C. communities. Jackson had earlier said it would be her last term as mayor, and her civic opponents recognized here many years of service in a unique way. First elected as mayor in 1999, Jackson is the longest-serving municipal politician in Metro Vancouver. She was first elected to Delta council in 1973 – the first woman ever elected to council. And she may not be finished yet. She announced last week that she is seeking a term as a councillor – as part of the Achieving For Delta slate headed by former municipal administrator Ge...

Delta Mayor Lois Jackson will be retiring from politics in 2018, after 46 years of involvement with Delta council. First elected as an alderman in 1972 (the first woman ever to hold that office in Delta), she has been mayor of Delta since 1999. In late 2017, she ushered Delta into a new era as it officially became a city. The new year will bring a lot of changes to the South Fraser area of Surrey, Delta, White Rock and Langley. Some of the biggest potential changes could be at the local council level. Voters will elect new councils on Oct. 20, 2018. The results of the 2014 election, the first in which councillors and mayors were elected to four-year terms, ended up mostly as expected. Many indications are that 2018 could be considerably different. Four-year terms did not bring out the best in some local politicians. For sure, there will be at least two new mayors. Delta Mayor Lois Jackson is not seeking another term. She has been mayor since 1999. Her involvement with Delt...