By Jill Sperling

CFJC Today columnist McQuarrie becomes fourth candidate vying for Kamloops mayor’s chair

Aug 15, 2017 | 6:47 AM

KAMLOOPS — Another candidate has entered the mayor’s race in the upcoming Kamloops by-election. 

CFJC Today and Armchair Mayor columnist Bill McQuarrie has put his name forward for the city’s top job. 

McQuarrie had initially supported former mayoral candidate Cindy Ross Friedman, and says when she dropped out of the race due to a family medical issue she suggested McQuarrie run for mayor. 

McQuarrie was also motivated by the ongoing Ajax discussion. 

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“Ajax has been the topic of discussion, the topic of argument,” McQuarrie said. “It’s what everybody’s thinking about. And yet, after eight years, we’re still talking. We haven’t done anything. I wondered why didn’t we have a back-up plan? Why weren’t we looking at opportunities? I can’t help but imagine what we would be like right now, what today would be like right now, if somebody, anybody had a vision for Kamloops.”

McQuarrie says his vision for Kamloops is a diversified economy that includes agriculture, technology, industry and new revenue. 

He would like to do away with what he sees as an automatic 2.5 per cent property tax increase every year. 

“That kind of tapping the tax payers is not sustainable, and it’s unfair, and it has to stop,” McQuarrie said. “So, my first priority when elected mayor would be just to put an end to that sense of entitlement and automatic 2.5 per cent increase in taxes. In the first year, which would be the taxation year of 2018, I would propose a zero per cent increase in our property taxes.”

McQuarrie joins candidates Ken Christian, Todd McLeod, and Reo Rocheleau in seeking the mayor’s chair.