Erik Eriksson announced his candidacy for a seat on Courtenay city council Wednesday.
Eriksson is a member of the boards of the Comox Valley Economic Development Society, the Comox Valley Youth Music Centre and the Comox Valley Walk of Achievement.
“I want to get elected to Courtenay city council not only to serve my community,” says Eriksson, “but also so I can be in a position to further two goals for which I have been a strong and persistent proponent.
“Those are, one, a single government for the Comox Valley and, two, a single regional hospital for the North Island,” he says.
Eriksson says the idea of a single government is one whose time has come.
“We need someone on city council with the fortitude to stand up and say so and with the energy and drive to work for it,” he says.
More pressing, he says, is the need to work to get the provincial government to support the principle of a single regional hospital for the North Island – before it is too late.
“I think the hospital authority’s first plan, announced in 2006, is the way to go,” says Eriksson. “The services that were envisioned under the regional hospital concept are far superior to those under the two hospital concept.”
Eriksson says he believes we are already losing specialists in the North Island because of the lack of facilities and we will be unable to attract the specialists that we will need in the future if the facilities are inadequate.
The retired industrial electrician and business representative with the IWA forest union (now Steelworkers), has previously served as a Courtenay councillor, and is active in the sports, music and culture communities.
Those who want to know more about Eriksson and/or want to assist in his campaign are invited to e-mail him at erik@eriksson.ca.
Provincewide municipal elections happen Nov. 19.