Knut Bjorndal to seek another term as Port Edward Mayor

Incumbent Mayor Knut Bjorndal in Port Edward is seeking
re-election in the 2022 civic campaign

The District of Port Edward has its first publicly declared candidate for the 2022 Civic election, with incumbent Mayor Knut Bjorndal announcing his plans to seek a return to office in the October 15th vote.

The mayor marking his campaign launch with a submitted statement in the print edition of the local newspaper. 

Among some of the themes for Mayor's election bid.  

The work of Council on the train whistling issues in the community, road construction, water plant improvements, upgrades for the Fire Department and Public Works and some of the capital project purchases the District has taken on in the last few years.

New housing construction and industrial development also make some of Mr. Bjornda's highlights package as well as the development of the small scale LNG project in the community.

He also notes of the success in the negotiation of a "Prosperity Agreement between the District and Prince Rupert along with the Mutual Aid agreement for the two communities. 

As he notes, Mayor Bjorndal has been at the helm for some significant momentum for the community and some controversies as well over the last four year term. 

With housing at the heart of both, first in the current start of new housing for the District, while some previous decisions on housing made for some testy times among some residents in the recent past.

He also has spoken out on Health Care issues, most recently participating in the Town Hall Conversation on Health hosted by MLA Jennifer Rice.

Mr. Bjorndal has been a fixture in Port Edward District politics for over a decade, the most recent vote counts were as follows:

In 2018 Mr. Bjorndal topped the polls with 113 votes, edging out then incumbent Dave MacDonald by ten votes. 

He served as a District councillor in 2014, was acclaimed to the councillor post in 2011and served on the 2011 District Council as well.

To this point, Mr. Bjorndal is the only incumbent of the Council membership to declare a candidacy, we'll find out if he'll have any competition for the Mayoralty race and who has plans to contest the four Council seats in just over a week.

The deadline to submit names in nomination for the October 15th Municipal election comes up at 4PM on September 9th.

You can review our look at the electoral nomination process in Port Edward here.

More notes on how the District will host the vote can be found on the Port Edward website.

To keep up on the campaigns both in Port Edward and Prince Rupert follow our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.