A familiar face around Carmacks is looking to represent the Yukon Party in the next territorial election.
Cory Bellmore is seeking the party’s nomination for Mayo-Tatchun.
Bellmore has lived in the riding her entire life. She has worked in various capacities for the municipal and First Nation governments over the last 15 years, including the last 10 years as Carmacks’s chief administrative officer.
“I’ve worked for the community for a long time and I just thought it was a natural move in my career path,” she said Friday.
“To find other opportunities to get the communities’ voices out of the communities.”
Bellmore said she chose to run for the Yukon Party because of its focus on the economy.
“I’m an economically minded person I like to see opportunities for people and I just thought that they were focused on that type of thing.”
Bellmore said voters will be interested in ways to get more jobs for young people in the territory.
“I don’t know what it’s like specifically in Whitehorse, because I don’t live there. But I know that it definitely is a problem here. There’s a lack of opportunity.”
She said it’s important to diversify all parts of the economy.
Bellmore currently lives in Carmacks with her family and three sons. She is the niece of Eric Fairclough, who served as the riding’s MLA from 1996 until 2011, first as a New Democrat and later as a Liberal. During the last election he was defeated by the NDP’s Jim Tredger, who received 42 per cent of the vote. Tredger is now seeking another term.
Don Hutton, a former mayor and councillor for the Village of Mayo, has announced his bid to run for the Liberals.
Bellmore said she’s watched the population of the community grow while she has lived there.
“I think it’s important that they (politicians) pay attention to all Yukoners and the communities are just as important as anywhere else,” she said.
“I want to hear them, I want to listen to them and I want to help find ways to do good things for the community. For all the communities, not just the one I’m in.”
Contact Ashley Joannou at
ashleyj@yukon-news.com