COURTENAY, B.C- Mayor Larry Jangula doesn’t know if he’ll be running again this year.
Jangula, who is nearing the end of his term as the mayor of Courtenay, hasn’t yet declared his intentions for upcoming municipal elections in the fall.
Councillors Erik Eriksson, David Frisch, and Bob Wells have already announced their plans to run for the mayoral chair, while the other three councillors remain publicly undecided.
While Jangula believes that everyone has the right to declare, he also considered the announcements premature.
“It’s now going to make all of our decisions on council much more political,” said Jangula.
“I just hope we’ll be able to keep focusing on doing the business of the city, which is what we’re hired to do.”
Jangula said that two of the declared candidates had approached him early last summer, telling him of their intentions to run. He believed it wasn’t a “well kept secret”.
“It’s way premature, and right now we’re going into budget time which is a very, very important time,” said Jangula.
“I don’t want to see that get messed up with party politics, and it may well lead to that.”
Overall, he believed the declarations that have been made were made too early, though he expects to see more declarations before the election.
“We all had a mandate to do a particular job, we should do that and then look at where we’re going to go from there,” said Jangula.
“There’s still plenty of time, we’re seven months away from the election.”
As for his own plans, Jangula indicated it depended on his family’s support, his health, and some “other things he wanted to do”.
“I don’t intend to do this job for the rest of my life,” said Jangula.
“It’s a rather stressful job.”
Municipal elections in British Columbia take place on Oct. 20, 2018, and the official nomination period for candidates begins on Sept.3.
