North Cowichan’s Mayor is among those stating his plans for the upcoming municipal election and he won’t be seeking reelection.
Al Siebring recently sold his home as part of his plan to retire in Alberta at the end of this term.
“Once I made the decision I figured well let’s allow lots of advance time for other folks who might want to step up,” said Siebring who has served on the council for 13 years. “Campaigns take time to plan, campaigns take time to finance.”
His is the first public announcement about intentions for the next North Cowichan council.
Municipal elections across Vancouver Island are now less than seven months away.
“There are always rumours at this stage because we’re still seven months out. I think you’re going to start seeing actual declarations by probably June, July,” said Siebring.
Looking at Vancouver Island’s three largest cities Lisa Helps stated she would not seek a third term in Victoria long ago, Leonard Krog has yet to state whether he intends to run again in Nanaimo and in Saanich Fred Haynes was likely the first mayor on Vancouver Island to publicly state he would seek reelection last fall.
“I declared that I was running last October because people were coming out to declare they were running so it’s a case of giving certainty to the electorate. I don’t think there’s no real need to declare until close to the election but that’s why I declared last October,” said Haynes.
Former Saanich councillor Dean Murdock is among the early canvassers, out there knocking on doors today after, publicly stating in October he wanted to become Saanich’s next mayor.
“Especially during a pandemic when people are reluctant to get together in social situations it means a lot of one on one conversations a lot of phone calls a lot of zoom conversations and obviously that takes time,” said Murdock.
Siebring says when changes in his life altered his reelection plans he wanted people in North Cowichan to know early so others could plan and finance their campaigns.
The next municipal election is set for October 15th, 2022.
Kendall Hanson
