So You Want To Run For Town Council

If you have been considering seeking a seat on Princeton Town Council, there are a few things you must do before the October 17, 2026, municipal election. The first important step is completing your nomination papers. This is the same process as must be followed in any local government (council, regional district, school board) in British Columbia.
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The Nomination Period runs from September 1, 2026 to September 11, 2026. It is during this time that candidate hopefuls hand in their paperwork to the corresponding Chief Election Officer. For me, seeking re-election to Princeton Town Council, I hand in my paperwork to the Chief Election Officer at Princeton Town Hall.

The paperwork, if you have never completed it before, is somewhat intimidating. There is a lot of personal information you must share and the majority of your nomination papers become public documents. Here are some of the details you must include:

Candidate Information Release Authorization

This page essentially gives the municipality permission to share your documents with the public and media. Although all questions on this specific page are optional, I prefer to fill them out completely. The details contained on the release form will appear on CivicInfo BC websites.

Once this information is released, expect to see several e-mails and receive a number of phone calls related to your election bid. Some will be media-related, others will be from companies trying to sell you something to "help" your campaign.

Just days after I picked up my Nomination Package for the upcoming October 2026 election, I received an e-mail from a company trying to sell me election-related "stuff" that I politely turned down. They likely caught wind of my re-election plans through social media. So...remember, this is when you start losing your privacy.

Nomination Documents

This section contains a list of local electors I have approached to nominate me for a seat on Town Council. Depending on where you live in British Columbia, the number of nominations required fluctuates from two to twenty-five or more. In Princeton, I need ten. I usually get more just in case one or more are disqualified for some reason. It does happen. When I filled out my nomination papers for the October 2018 municipal election, one name was DQ’d.

Appointment of Candidate Financial Agent

I choose to act as my own Financial Agent, but some candidates will select someone they know and trust to fill this role. This page requires all the information about who that person is.

Appointment of Candidate Official Agent

This is another page that details who a candidate’s official agent is if one is selected.

Appointment of Candidate Scrutineer

And…another page outlining information on a candidate’s scrutineer, if one is chosen.

Statement of Disclosure

Under the Financial Disclosure Act, a candidate must include the document known as the Statement of Disclosure. This document must be updated annually by elected members of the local government. The documents are kept on file at Town Hall and are available for viewing by any member of the public.

For example, if you are curious about how much property I own in Princeton, and where, you can find out by examining the Statement of Disclosure. Wondering who I owe money to? That's also in that document.

​It has sections with headings including:

Assets

This is where the name of each corporation a candidate holds shares in must be identified. As I own a corporation, I must list it and certain  information about it.

Liabilities

A list of creditors a candidate owes a debt to - just the name of the creditor and creditor’s address. The actual amount of debt owing is not disclosed. Examples would be existing loans, credit card debts, etc.

Income

Here a candidate lists all sources of income including their capacity within the business and the name of the business.

Property

Candidates must list the legal description and address of all land they own.

Corporate Assets

Here a candidate has to list the names of corporations they own, the type of business conducted by the corporation, and a list of creditors.

There are also a couple of declaration pages that should be signed in front of the Chief Election Officer who must sign as a witness.

After You Complete All Paperwork

Once the nomination package is completed, you can hand it to the Chief Election Officer for review between September 1, 2026 and September 11, 2026. Candidates are expected to provide a nomination deposit of $100 at the time of filing their nomination papers. After the papers are reviewed, they stay with the Chief Election Officer. A candidate has no idea who else is running in the election with/against them until nominations close and the Declaration of Candidates is made after 4:00 PM on September 11, 2026. 

I get asked all the time who is running in the local elections. Unless someone has posted an announcement online, I won't know how many candidates there are, nor who they are, until after September 11, 2026.

Final Thoughts

It sounds intimidating, doesn’t it? But this is a process overseen by Elections BC and followed in every local government election in the province. Trust me, when I picked up my nomination package for the upcoming municipal election, it looked like a lot of work. I just picked away at it, section by section, as I've done in previous municipal elections, and got the majority of the paperwork filled out in an afternoon. Gathering nominations takes a lot longer than that. 

So…there you go. That is the process one must follow to become a candidate in the upcoming elections. Remember, general voting day is October 17, 2026, between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM at the Princeton & District Community Skills Centre, 206 Vermilion Avenue, Princeton. The advance voting day is October 7, 2026.


When you cast your ballot, please consider voting for me, George Elliott.