It's time to start getting to know the candidates for school board
And where can you buy a bouncy ball in this town?
With just under two weeks until byelection day, it’s time to start getting to know the candidates for school board in Prince George. To recap, there are two open positions and there are ten people running for those positions. You get to vote for two people, and whichever two get the most votes wins.
This Thursday, there will be an all-candidate forum at Vanier Hall from 6 pm to 8 pm, hosted by the unions representing teachers and support staff, as well as the parents’ council. And Hannah Petersen has completed her write-ups on the candidates, which you can read below:
Four of these candidates may already be known to folks, I think. Sarah Holland has long been involved in the District Parent Advisory Council, while Shar McCrory, Josh Silva and Milton Mahoney have all run for board before. McCrory previously spent eight years on the school board in Hazelton, where she lived previously, and finished in sixth place in the 2022 general election — 621 short of getting a seat at the table. Josh Silva finished 170 votes behind her and has been in the news since for kicking off an ongoing standoff between the current board and the union when he spoke at a board meeting about the “woke agenda”, something he had issues with when he ran previously and still has issues with now. Mahoney actually sat on the board previously and made his share of headlines for espousing similar views. Holland and McCrory, meanwhile, have the endorsement of the North Central Labour Council and ran a booth together at Pride, though they seemt o be campaigning more on the fact that they have previous experience in governance and an idea of the scope of the job of being on the school board, rather than the political side of things. They aren’t the only ones with previous governance experience, mind — Lucille Duncan was previously on the school board for School District 91 (Nechako Lakes) and others have sat on other boards or worked in the education system.
Programming note:
I’ll be traveling this week so I’m not sure the newsletter will be coming out consistently. Just a heads up! You can expect more incosinstency throughout June and I’ll probably hit some sort of hiatus around July.
Quick news:
Foothills Boulevard seniors housing complex denied parking, side yard variances.
B.C. municipalities get mixed messages on how to tackle public drug use.
Three-day Indigenous cultural celebration coming to Prince George.
June means trouble for B.C. wildfires with hot, dry forecast set to compound drought.
Proposed multi-family development near Exhibition Park moves forward.
City, regional district to test public alert system June 12.
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