r/Kamloops • u/Agreeable-Waltz495 • 3d ago
News Another Potential Mayoral Vote Split
https://www.radionl.com/2026/08/28/fourth-name-to-be-added-to-ballot-for-kamloops-mayors-chair/Looks like Ray is running for Mayor again. Likely won't win but now there are 4 vying for Mayor so there could be another vote split allowing RHJ to retain his spot. Question to me now becomes is will Dever's slate draw votes away form RHJ or will her and O'Reilly split the vote again. we don't have 3 similar councilors running for mayor as we did in '22 but I think the risk remains the same here.
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u/b1rd0fparadise 3d ago
A story about Ray that should tell you his character. One time my mother and I parked in my tiny, old, slightly beat up university car in his parking lot. My mother happened to be driving my car because I was working on something in the passenger seat. We were going to his locksmith shop, but I was making a stop at the store on the other side of his parking lot first while my mother waited in the car. Ray sees this and proceeds to yell LOUDLY at my mom to move the car and how she can't park in his lot. He yelled with such aggression at my mother that other people are even appalled. I was in shock, and my biggest regret is that I didn't record him doing this. My mom even said we were about to go into his store and he said something along the lines of "yeah, right" and continued making a scene. I guess he assumed we were just using his parking lot, but we were actually customers.
I've always wondered if my mother had been driving her Lexus if he would have treated us the same way.
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u/thekamflair Downtown 2d ago
Downtown parking would be better for a lot of people if Ray wasn’t being such a massive jerk for restricting who gets to park in the parking space near his store. He’s one part of why All Aboard Games on Lansdowne died. I will NEVER forgive Ray Dhaliwal for it. That property has remained empty ever since.
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u/steviedoesdrag 3d ago
I’ll plug my nose and vote for the developer, if I must. At least he knows when to declare a conflict of interest.
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u/thekamflair Downtown 3d ago
Nelly Dever is ideologically similar to RHJ and Ray Dhaliwal. There will be no split occurring between her and Mike O’Reilly. If anything, Ray Dhaliwal takes away voters from RHJ. Same with Dever. The only way that Mike O’Reilly gets votes taken away from him is if someone like Sadie Hunter runs for mayor.
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u/Dependent-Mood-7788 Downtown 3d ago
Which of the candidates is best at getting along and collaborating with their peers? Genuinely asking, obviously it's not RHJ.
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u/Agreeable-Waltz495 3d ago
The remaining 8 councilors seem to get along quite well so I'm going with O'Reilly
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u/Dependent-Mood-7788 Downtown 3d ago
Something about O'Reilly gives me the creeps but I can't put my finger on it. He seems disingenuous or something. You're right though, he seems like he has been a team player during his time on council.
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u/thekamflair Downtown 3d ago
Mike O’Reilly is actually the only mayoral candidate to put Kamloops back on the track towards upward mobility. Kamloops as a whole is not at the point where we can have the luxury of having different shades of the same opinion to vote for without letting a used car salesfascist come up through the middle.
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u/Agreeable-Waltz495 3d ago
Yeah, I agree that there's no Duty/Hunter/Singh split this time as all three of those candidates were quite similar. I'd like to even see those 3 go and stump together for O'Reilly and get their supporters on board. I'm glad your so optimistic about this but I still have this sinking feeling in my stomach. RHJ's base is quite strong but depends if it's big enough. And the more candidates, the more a risk for a split becomes reality again.
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u/thekamflair Downtown 3d ago
The problem is that Dever will take up most of his base because of the presence of Katherine Blair-Wunderlich on the Pivot Kamloops slate as a council candidate. Katherine alone has a good chunk of control over the RHJ/yee haw base.
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u/noodlesurvey 1d ago
He only got 7k votes last election, I reckon that number will be even less this time. I see lots of posts from people who regret voting for him, and he's got serious competition with Dever. Politics these days are hard to predict, but I do think he's relatively cooked.🤞
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u/SuperSwaiyen 1d ago
Sadie Hunter is moving to the island so she won't be running.
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u/thekamflair Downtown 1d ago
I know. I’m aware. I said someone LIKE Sadie Hunter, not Sadie Hunter herself.
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u/brycecampbel Aberdeen 3d ago
If we need 10+ mayoral candidates to get 80% of voters to vote, I don't care.
The issue isn't about splitting the vote, its that people didn't vote.
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u/Agreeable-Waltz495 3d ago
It's both tho isn't it? Kamloops historically never tops much more than 30% turnout which makes the split a real issue. I think at present we have to plan for the way it's likely to be vs the way we wish it could be.
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u/JRitcey2026 3d ago
Yes, Ray is a former city councillor, but his platform and voter base always seemed more RHJ than the Dudy/Singh/Hunter grouping of councillors, so I don't think he played a role in the vote splitting that elected Reid last time.
If anything, I think Mike will be happy about this!
In response to the comment saying they want to see those former councillors endorsing Mike, Dieter Dudy has done so already. Arjun Singh is non-partisan due to being part of the media now (Kamloops Chronicle), and Sadie Hunter moved to Campbell River, so I kinda doubt she's going to play much of a role either way.
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u/Agreeable-Waltz495 3d ago
Ahh, didn't know she moved. Just figured people were still around. Maybe you have a bit more info into the actual positions of the pivot group as you seem to know some of them? What's your opinion on the mayoral. Despite the issues you've had in this subreddit you seem to be somewhat into to the goings on,
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u/JRitcey2026 3d ago
My big question mark with the Pivot group is the review they want to conduct of the Centre for the Arts, you can see some of that exchange at the bottom of this article:
Former councillor Dever to run for mayor, lead ‘Pivot Kamloops’ slate | CFJC Today Kamloops
Contracts have been signed, tenders for individual components have been finalized, so I am not really sure what they are getting at there from a policy point of view, other than maybe just political positioning to appeal to the anti-arts crowd.
In terms of Nelly Dever, I'd say she is offering the Mayor's policy approach free from his personal baggage. Trying to appeal to everyone who voted for him in 2022, but have since been disappointed by all the drama. As a progressive, I object to the Mayor's policy ideas too, not just the behaviour. But I do think it is important to understand the frustrations of those voters and try to engage, to some extent, with that side of things too.
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u/QuietNarwhal576 3d ago
I don't really like O'Reilly but I'm going with he declared first he gets the vote to avoid splitting and get RHJ out philosophy
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u/BC_Interior 3d ago
I wish we had a new, reasonable, intelligent candidate for mayor. Not liking any options.
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u/Own-Yam2260 3d ago
Aside from the new part? Oreilly is the only reasonable and intelligent candidate
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u/Dependent-Mood-7788 Downtown 3d ago
All the mayoral candidates suck. This run feels hopeless.
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u/Agreeable-Waltz495 3d ago
There's a good argument there to make that yeah, in some way they all suck. But that attitude shouldn't let us get stuck with RHJ for another 4 years, question is, who do you think sucks the least or do we just stay home and live with the status quo.
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u/nursingninjaLB 3d ago
It's baffling that the current mayor, who is almost bankrupt, does not pay his bills, has cost your city literally millions of dollars in legal fees, and who has been banished to the basement of city Hall, is running again. Like zero insight at all.
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u/Irishgirl1962 3d ago
And how does he run a campaign broke? Who will waste their $$ supporting him?
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u/Kronzor_ 3d ago
I honestly don’t even care I just need to know who’s got the best chance of unseating hammer and that’s my vote. We can’t waste more time, money, and credibility as a city doing that again.
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u/Agreeable-Waltz495 3d ago
But what if your choice of who is best differs from mine? Then we've just negated our vote. Personally, I'm voting for Mike as he's the best of a worst scenario. I think he'll be ok but I'd prefer someone else. I can't forgive Dever for being part of the reason why the PAC is as expensive as it is. She's not the only reason, but a big part.
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u/Kronzor_ 3d ago
My choice is whoever has the best chance of unseating the current mayor. As long as we agree on that’s all I need to know.
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u/Dependent-Mood-7788 Downtown 3d ago
Hahah, yep it's always "who sucks the least". It almost feels like the Kamloops sub needs to get together and vote for the same candidate. Most of us seem to share the desire to get RHJ out of here.
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u/moodychurchill Rayleigh 3d ago
I’m at the point where it’s anyone but Reid. I’m likely going to vote for councillors and not cast a vote for mayor.
I just want it over so we can hopefully move on. The last four years have felt like torture.
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u/Agreeable-Waltz495 3d ago
Wouldn't you want to vote for a mayor then if it's anyone but Reid? At least look at the platforms and give one a chance. I would feel that not voting just casts a vote in another way for Reid if that's who you are trying to avoid. But hey, you can vote how you want, your call.
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u/moodychurchill Rayleigh 3d ago
I will closer to the time. As of yet I have no choices I would be happy with.
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u/PrestigiousBat7400 3d ago
I don’t feel great about any of the candidates.