3 mayoral candidates want to lead Lytton out of the ashes
CBC
Every morning Denise O'Connor looks out from her home in Lytton at the burned-out remains of the village.
She's just one of a limited number of the village's estimated 210 residents who have returned to the community following a wildfire that burned the community in the summer of 2021.
O'Connor is vying with Edith Loring-Kuhanga and Willie Nelson, the village's two other candidates for mayor, for a chance to lead the community through the next phase of the village's rebuilding after Mayor Jan Polerman and all of the rest of council opted not to seek re-election.
O'Connor says her run for mayor was motivated partly by frustration over the lengthy rebuilding process.
After the fire, the retired elementary school principal attended council meetings and started to seek out all the information she could about it. She also volunteered running the Resiliency Centre up until it closed this summer and now heads the Lytton Chamber of Commerce.
"Right after the fire… I was one of those evacuees who was very angry, and I wanted to know more information."
O'Connor's home was destroyed in the fire, but she says she has been able to find another place to live while cleanup work begins on her property — over a year after it was destroyed.
"I do have a good understanding of the needs of the people."
She says her focus, if elected, would be to be more transparent and accountable to voters to help them understand any delays, along with working to speed up the rebuild.
Edith Loring-Kuhanga says she decided to put her name on the ballot after being asked to run by some community members.
"Everybody seemed to think that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and that I have a lot of skill and experience that I could bring to the table to really help move Lytton forward."
As the current administrator for the Stein Valley Nlakapamux School, she says she worked with staff and students throughout the last 15 months to help them adjust to the impacts of the wildfire.
Loring-Kuhanga says her background as a longtime administrator and former chair of the Greater Victoria School Board makes her well placed to rebuild a community, given her experience managing government policy and working within a bureaucracy.
"We have a big job ahead of us … I'm up for the challenge."
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