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Ames confirms run for Pemberton council

McLeod won’t seek re-election

The Pemberton election continues to heat up with the announcement this week that realtor Lisa Ames will be running for council in November.

Ames currently serves on the VOP’s Advisory Land Use Committee and is both a director of the Pemberton Chamber of Commerce and president of the Pemberton Rotary Club.

A resident of the Whistler and Pemberton areas for 22 years, she won “Citizen of the Year” in 2006 and received the 2004 Realtors Care Award from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Reached on her cell phone on Tuesday night, she did not have time to explain why she was running but said she would be filing her nomination papers on Wednesday.

“I’m going to have bio and everything out tomorrow,” she said, adding that her announcement would come out Wednesday afternoon, while Pique Newsmagazine is in production.

Ames, who was also recognized in Pique ’s Best of Pemberton survey for her quote, “I believe in Pemberton,” has been a regular presence at VOP council meetings and was a key organizer for a Sea to Sky delegation that traveled to Beijing in September for the 2008 Paralympic Games.

She is the fourth person to formally declare a candidacy in the Pemberton election after incumbent Mayor Jordan Sturdy and councillor David MacKenzie both announced their intentions to run for mayor.

The mayoral race pits two former members of the Valley Vision: Leadership in Action (VVLA) group against each other. VVLA was a group of Pemberton residents that ran in the 2005 election under a single brand, though candidates were at pains to declare that they were not a slate.

Pemberton resident Ted Craddock, who has served on councils in Squamish and Fort Nelson, has confirmed he is considering a run for council but has not decided whether he’ll run for mayor or to be a councillor.

Councillor Kirsten McLeod, meanwhile, confirmed to Pique in an e-mail that she will not be running for council in the next election. She did not return requests for further comment by press time.

She is the second member of the current council who has decided not to seek re-election. Jennie Helmer, also a former member of VVLA, announced in July that she would not be running again, citing family, farming and business commitments.

Councillor Mark Blundell, who at three terms is the longest-serving member of council, has yet to confirm his intentions for the November election.