Independent candidate Duncan Boyd- MacLeod of Kimberley B.C. comes forward as sixth candidate. Photo submitted.
Seeking public office is a decision that Duncan Boyd-MacLeod made long ago when he was pursuing his education at the University of Calgary. Over the past 25 years, Mr. Boyd-MacLeod has worked as an educator, but has always had politics in the back of his mind.
Mr. Boyd-Macleod made the decision to enter the MLA candidate race as an independent on Thursday, April 13th, then quickly dove into seeking nomination support from his community of Kimberly B.C..
The process of entering the political race means candidates must have 75 signatures confirming they’d make a good candidate. For candidates backed by a political party Mr. Boyd-MacLeod said the process might be a little different, but as an independent, it’s a great introduction to campaigning.
As an independent, you go door to door which is a great induction to the election process. Theres lots of conversations around current events and issues, (and) ultimately you hope they give a signature. Which has nothing to do with whether they’ll vote for you or are just endorsing that you’d be a good candidate, said Mr. Boyd-MacLeod.
Mr. Boyd-MacLeod credits his five children for motivating him in making the decision to enter as an independent candidate. He said thinking about his children becoming adults and the political system they were inheriting pushed him to run.
Born and raised in Kimberley Mr. Boyd-MacLeod left in the 1990s to pursue post-secondary education, moving back to Kimberley in 2004. He now works as the Kimberley-based international education manger for Rocky Mountain School District Six.
Mr. Boyd-Macleod will focus his campaign on democracy reform and is hoping to reach voters who traditionally haven’t exercised their right to vote.
The overarching focus of my campaign is democracy reform. I’ve got positions and ideas with regards to a lot of issues, that are in my opinion are all traceable to that one root problem. So I’ll be focusing on not just the highlighted or most affected issues of campaign finance reform, but also the actual process of electoral reform and ultimately institution reform as well, said Mr. Boyd-MacLeod.
Over the next three weeks, Mr. Boyd-MacLeod hopes to inspire voters who have felt marginalized or disenfranchised to get out to the ballot box.
I think with some younger voters it’s a more recent realization that the system is broken, and that exercising what is a really valuable right almost never makes a difference. My goal is to change that, said Mr. Boyd-MacLeod.
