The managing editor of the Penticton Herald has taken the Penticton City Council seat left open by retired Penticton city councillor Jake Kimberley, earning himself roughly 33 per cent of the votes cast in the byelection.
James Miller told Castanet that he’s "overwhelmed" by the support he’s received from the community, shortly after being announced the winner on Saturday evening.
“Well, just thank you to everyone for that overwhelming vote of confidence. It's humbling. And thank you to the people who work so hard to get me elected. Thank you to the people who did things in their own little way, whether it was talking me up among friends or liking a post on Facebook or putting up a lawn sign,” he said.
Miller added that the turnout was definitely an improvement to previous years of elections.
“I think when you have 10 candidates, obviously, I think that will create interest. I think maybe the opinion poll on the Marina, I think maybe that brought a few people out. I credit the city with doing a great job, lots of advance polls, lots of opportunities for advanced voting, and byelections traditionally are half to three quarters lower. I don't know, I think that's a pretty good number.”
The City of Penticton announced preliminary results before 9 p.m. on Saturday night, with votes totalling over 5,000.
Miller hopes to use his 15-month assignment to really listen to the citizens of this community.
“I just want to be the best possible prepared city councillor that I can be, that makes better decisions that listens to the public and that works collaboratively. And as I said, when necessary, might have to ask a tough or uncomfortable question.”
Miller outlined that he will have strict guidelines in place as he remains as the managing editor of the Penticton Herald. He spent time running much of his campaign by the motto that his years covering council as a journalist are transferable experience to the seat.
“I'm going back to work on Monday, I do miss it. These five weeks, it is a bit of an endurance test, because I work really hard and so did my team. But I'm gonna have obviously a lot of strict guidelines, I tried to test run before I even announced to see if I can do it. As I said, and thank you to the 1666 people who, who trust me when I said, I can wear two hats, but not at the same time,” he said, adding that he’s confident he can achieve this.
“I will not be mentioning City Council, I will not be writing on it. Every second Tuesday, when it's meeting day, I will not even be in the building and I absolutely will not mandate to my staff what they are to report or say.”
Miller plans for his writing to be focused more in feature writing on people in the community, kids or possibly even sports.
“Feature writing is something that I love to do, and I'm very good at it, so I'm glad to let others handle that. And I will be watched I'm sure.”
He also believes that his staff and reporters can "absolutely, unequivocally" cover him impartially and ethically.
“They're also a unionized staff. So if I'm ever, you know, someone had suggested if I was ever to use my influence, I'd immediately get a call from Unifor 123 which is the union which represents the reporters. Secondly, I would be dismissed for my position and I really don't want to lose my job in shame in front of the entire community,” he explained.
“At the same time, when I'm wearing my council hat, I absolutely will not leak something to the paper because that's considered municipal corruption, which is punishable by up to 14 years in jail.”
Overall, Miller said he was touched and ‘really, really pleased with the result.’
The votes in favour of the Skaha Marina being run by a private operator and entering into a long-term agreement of up to 25 years in order to fund the marina improvements and services passed by a narrow margin, with 2453 for yes, and 2416 for no.
The preliminary voting results for the other candidates are below:
- Jame Blake: 95
- Amelia Boultbee: 610
- Steve Brown: 399
- Karen Brownlee: 237
- Jason Cox: 317
- Isaac Gilbert : 766
- Kate Hansen: 718
- Keith MacIntyre: 67
- Katie O’Kell: 134