Prince George City Councillor Jillian Merrick will be running for the position of mayor, but not where you might think.
She will be running in the District of Wells, about 80-kilometers east of Quesnel.
Will this affect her work on PG council? Merrick assures it will not.
“Never, if ever, would the District of Wells on the City of Prince George’s agenda and vice-versa,” she explains.
“It’s just like everybody else on council who maintain another job outside of their council work is that they’re just separate and we manage our time appropriately to make both work.”
Merrick’s day job is at Barkerville Historic Town & Park. She currently lives in Wells on weekends to accommodate. This, on top of a few other reasons, is why she decided to run.
“It was seeming like the community was really struggling to find folks to take up that mantle and, after much soulsearching, I realized that perhaps I had some skills and experience with my role in Prince George and certainly some familiarity with the community.”
Previous Mayor Robin Sharpe resigned in February, stating in his resignation letter “he no longer wants to be part of such a negative situation”.
The by-election will also be for one councillor seat and is June 9th, 2018. Both winners will serve until the regularly scheduled elections in October.