Kamloops Multicultural Society President and Kamloops mayoral candidate Ray Dhaliwal/via Ray Dhaliwal
A new — yet familiar — face is going to be added to the ballot of
those contesting the mayor’s office in Kamloops during the October 17th municipal vote.
Ray Dhaliwal, long-time chair of the Kamloops Multicultural Society and a former Kamloops City Councilor, will only confirm to Radio NL that he’s working on an impending announcement.
However, sources have told Radio NL that Dhaliwal is finalizing plans for another run for the mayor’s chair.
Dhaliwal, who runs Ray’s Lock and Key, is no stranger to the political realm in Kamloops.
He would first emerge on the local scene in 2017 by winning one of two council seats up for grabs when Peter Milobar vacated the mayor’s chair after being elected the MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson. (Ken Christian vacated his council seat to run for mayor, while Marg Spina would resign early due to health issues)
Dhaliwal would finish 2nd in that by-election, but would fail to reclaim the seat a year later when the municipal cycle returned to voting in 2018.
However, he would come up short in the next municipal election the following year, falling short of now-incumbent Bill Sarai for the 8th and final spot around the council ‘horseshoe’ that year by a margin of around 3.5%.
Undeterred by that outcome, the following election in 2022 Dhaliwal would run again.
This time it was for mayor, finishing with just over 11% of the overall vote among the five who entered the race in 2022, including current incumbent Reid Hamer-Jackson, who would take the 2022 election by nearly 31.5% of the vote, an over 7% margin of victory.
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- Kamloops 2026 mayoral candidate Reid Hamer-Jackson
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- Kamloops 2026 mayoral candidate Nelly Dever
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- Kamloops 2026 mayoral candidate Ray Dhaliwal
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- Kamloops 2026 mayoral candidate Mike O’Reilly
Dhaliwal, once confirmed for the 2026 race, will make it four candidates currently up for the only full-time position on Kamloops City Council.
The others include Hamer-Jackson, councillor Mike O’Reilly and Pivot Kamloops mayoral candidate Nelly Dever.
All four of the candidates have experience in municipal politics.
While Reid Hamer-Jackson entered the 2022 race for mayor without any political experience, all four running this time have at least one term of office in under their belts, with Nelly Dever having served on Kamloops Council from 2011 to 2014.
O’Reilly is wrapping up his second, 4-year term as a Kamloops councilor.
