Castlegar mayor Maria McFaddin says she’s not worried about a changed dynamic on city council now that two councillors are seeking her job.
McFaddin announced last week on Facebook that she would not stand for a second term. She says “many things” influenced her decision.
“My life has changed a lot in the last four years,” she said in an interview with Vista Radio. “Kids have changed. They got married and graduated and moved out of the house. I’m in a very different stage of life. There were a lot of things I took off my plate in order to take this role.”
McFaddin said she had to decide whether she was willing to keep those other things on hold for another four years. However, she was intrigued when a new position came up related to leadership development and mentoring, something she is passionate about.
“There’s been some opportunity both locally and internationally that I’m exploring,” she said. “I really love that work. I didn’t feel like I could do both well, so I had to choose where I put my focus.”
McFaddin said if things pans out, it will probably involve a lot of travel, but she and her husband have no plans to leave Castlegar.
She said while being in the spotlight as mayor can be hard, it’s not why she’s steping down. She said she has enjoyed her time on council, including four years as a councillor before being elected mayor in 2022.
“It has been a tremendous learning curve,” she said. “I have learned so much. I got to work with some amazing people and amazing community groups led by deeply passionate people and that has been really fun.
“So I will miss so much of what I do. I will miss the people, I’ll miss the relationships, and it’s been a really great experience. I actually don’t have a lot of negative things to say about it. But seasons change.”
McFaddin said it was ultimately a “very tough decision” not to run again, but her choice was helped by the fact that she feels the city is “in a really healthy place” with a “really healthy team.”
She said she’s been thinking about her political future since January, and knew that once she made her decision she wanted to give the community as much notice as possible in case anyone else was thinking of running.
It took almost no time for two people to step forward. Within hours of McFaddin’s announcement, councillors Brian Bogle and Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff both declared their candidacies for mayor. McFaddin said she was not surprised, although she didn’t know for certain that either would seek the job.
McFaddin posted a positive comment on Bogle’s Facebook page following his announcement.
“There’s a reason why I chose Brian as my deputy mayor,” she subsequently told Vista Radio. “I appreciate the way he leads. I think he is deeply compassionate and caring, but still can make the decisions he has to make.”
McFaddin said while it will be up to voters to choose the next mayor, Bogle receives her personal endorsement. “I would endorse him, not as the mayor, but as a person of who’s worked alongside him,” she said.
“I think the voters have to decide what they want from a leader. They have very different styles, and it’s really going to come down to what style voters want. It would be drastically different depending on which one ended up in that seat.”
That said, McFaddin doesn’t expect the fact Bogle and Heaton-Sherstobitoff are running against each other to have any negative consequences for the rest of the council term.
“We will be fine. We have a very respectful council. So I am not concerned about that. Councillor Heaton and councillor Bogle are both people of integrity, so I think they’ll both still show up to do their job.
“Do I think it’s going to change the dynamic slightly? Of course, we are human beings.”
However, McFaddin said she thought the bigger risk lay in not giving the community enough notice of her plans.
Voting day is Oct. 17. The next council will be sworn in in November.
