Lethbridge County still seeking nominee for by-election

By Al Beeber on November 10, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Nominations close Monday for a by-election to fill a vacant Lethbridge County seat and Reeve Tory Campbell is hoping someone steps to the plate.

Nobody ran in October’s municipal election to represent Division 5 so a by-election is scheduled for Dec. 13.

If only one person submits nomination papers, that individual will be acclaimed to the seat which represents an area in the northwest sector of the county which includes Nobleford and Monarch.

But someone first has to run.

Campbell, a Coaldale-area farmer who was elected reeve by his peers, said Tuesday nobody has yet come forward.

Nominatioin papers can be picked up at the County office at #100 904 4 Ave. S. In Lethbridge or downloaded at https://lethcounty.ca/p/election-2021.

Papers must be filed at the office between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. during office hours.

An advance vote is scheduled for Dec. 4 with locations and times to be announced on the County’s website.

“Everybody’s going in so many directions these days. I think there might be a little bit of hesitation there to commit to something. Maybe it’s just a lack of information on what the role of a councillor is and what that actually entails. I think people are just generally busy. . .so I do understand it’s tough,” said Campbell.

A county councillor position is not a full-time one, he said. Council meets for half a day two times per month at the chambers in the Lethbridge office. Councillors also sit on various committees and attend several conferences each year, Campbell said.

“It’s a great learning experience,” added the reeve who is now in his second term representing Division 2.

“Having this void in one of the divisions, having an empty chair at the council table, it definitely makes things a little more challenging just in the sense we’re right now undertaking all of our orientation and we’re starting our workshops just to get the new councillors up to speed,” Campbell said.

“It adds that extra little hiccup to things when we don’t have a full complement of councillors at the table. So it’s definitely something we’d like to get taken care of sooner rather than later,” he added.

“It’s something I’ve found very rewarding. I’ve really enjoyed my time on council.”

If nobody files nomination papers on Monday, the deadline will be extended daily for another week, he said.

“We can hopefully entice someone. And at that time, if we did not have a nomination, we would then go back to Municipal Affairs and get direction from them as to how we should proceed. I would think they would probably want us to essentially try again and it would be up to us to set a date in the future but that is at the discretion of the Ministry,” Campbell said.

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