Southern Alberta rural municipalities still on the hunt for candidates

The countdown to this year’s municipal election is on, but some southern Alberta municipalities aren’t quite ready for the race.

Both the county of Forty Mile and Lethbridge county are having to extend their nomination deadlines past Monday, September 20th, with each municipality needing one more candidate to round out the ballot.

“It’s not terribly common, but it is something we do have to deal with this time around,” Lethbridge county returning officer Larry Randle said.

Lethbridge county is still looking for someone to represent division five and filling out the rest of the county was a struggle, with four divisions already acclaimed after only one candidate submitted their papers in each riding.

It’s a problem that’s a bit surprising to Cardston county’s chief administrative officer, Murray Millward.

The Cardston county has candidates running in each of its divisions, with multiple candidates in six of the seven divisions.

“We usually have at least a couple of people running in each division,” Millward said. “The last two elections we’ve had all the divisions with people running, so this is about normal.”

Millward says Cardston county didn’t do anything special to attract candidates.

“We do what everybody else does. We let them know when the election is, we point them to the provincial authorities if they’re thinking about running, so we’re not doing anything out of the ordinary there,” Millward explained.

Meantime, Randle believes there are multiple factors that may have discouraged people from running, including the recent federal election and southern Alberta’s drought conditions this summer.

“We’ve had a hot, dry summer and some people who would be going along in their regular lives, farmers in particular, are having to deal with additional challenges and stress,” Randle said.

“It’s a big time commitment to be on council and it’s not a regular schedule. I think we can all appreciate the challenge for busy, working people in particular to find the time to get out and be a member of local municipal council.”

The deadline for both counties will be extended on a daily basis until September 27th and if no one comes forward, the province will be informed and provide direction to the counties.