B.C. municipal election 2018: Valemount results

Owen Torgerson was elected Valemount’s mayor with 31.1 per cent of the vote.

Holly Blanchette was re-elected as a councillor, along with newcomers Peter Pearson, Sheri Gee and Donalda MacLean.

Candidates

Mayor:

Andru McCracken

Peter Reimer

Sandy A. Salt

Owen Torgerson (elected)

Council:

Holly Blanchette (incumbent and elected)

Sheri Gee (elected)

Eugene Jamin

Donalda MacLean (elected)

Peter D. Pearson (elected)

Rita Rewerts

Nathan D. Smith

Boundary

Valemount is located along Highway 5 in B.C.’s Robson Valley Region, about 200 kilometres north of Clearwater.

Population (2016)

1,021

History

Fulton Alexander McKirdy was the first to set up a homestead in the Valemount area in 1906.

Then, in 1914, a railway was built through Yellowhead Pass, and a station built at Swift Creek, about two kilometres from where Valemount sits today.

A small town dependent on logging would spring up, growing slowly.

The Swift Creek station was moved a mile down the tracks in 1927, and the town was named Valemount, a shorthand for “Valley of the Mountains.”

Median after-tax income of households (2015)/B.C. median

$96,000/$111,736

Political representation

Federal

Bob Zimmer (Conservative)

Provincial

Shirley Bond (BC Liberal)