Candidates meeting fills Sechelt hall

Residents packed Seaside Centre in Sechelt on Monday night to hear mayoral candidate for District of Sechelt Bruce Milne introduce some of the other candidates who’ve registered to run in the Sechelt races, and to unveil his campaign platform. Photo Apryl Veld

About 150 people packed Seaside centre in Sechelt on Monday night to hear mayoral candidate for District of Sechelt, Bruce Milne introduce some of the other candidates who’ve registered to run in the Sechelt races, and to talk about creating change in Sechelt.

The event sponsored by Milne invited the public to help the candidates who were encouraged at the meeting to run grass roots community campaigns, and not leave it up to the candidates to do it alone.

“It’s your campaign, you need to take charge,” Milne said, “talk to your neighbours, talk to strangers.”

A former mayor himself, Milne, who is also the president of the Sunshine Coast Arts Council unveiled the main points of his platform, which included running a city hall that has more open meetings, transparency on council decisions, and full disclosure of expenses.

Asking for more voices from the public, he said that scrutiny of the municipal activities should be applied across the board including for his own activities.

“I like dissent, I like to hear how I can do better,” Milne expressed.

The candidates Milne endorsed ranged from veteran District councillors to firsttime candidates for mayor, and included sitting councillor’s Mike Shanks and Alice Lutes, as well as former councillors, Ed Steeves and Alice Janisch, Jon Bell, Norm Blair, former mayor Darren Inkster, along with Terry Karkabee, Warren Allan, Kirk Exner, Doug Wright and the youthful Noel Muller.

After his presentation Milne opened up the meeting for the public to talk to the candidates and each other, and the public took advantage of the opportunity to discuss the municipal races with one another, spilling out onto the terrace of Seaside Centre into the warm Sechelt evening. Apryl Veld