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Summerland’s first council was elected by acclamation

Reeve and four councillors were elected in December, 1906
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On Dec. 21, 1906, the community of Summerland met all of the requirements of the Municipal Incorporation Act and was officially incorporated. The municipal election took place on Jan. 14 1907, and the five candidates who ran won by acclamation. (Photo courtesy of the Okanagan Historical Society)

The members of Summerland’s first municipal council were all elected by acclamation more than a century ago.

On Dec. 21, 1906, the community of Summerland met all of the requirements of the Municipal Incorporation Act and was officially incorporated.

The municipal election took place on Jan. 14, 1907, and the five candidates who ran won by acclamation.

Summerland was founded in August, 1902 when Sir Thomas Shaughnessy and his company, the Summerland Syndicate, purchased George Barclay’s Trout Creek Ranch.

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The Barclay cattle ranch comprised 1,416. The company then acquired an additional 202 acres of government land.

With the passage of the Municipal Incorporation Act of 1896 by the British Columbia Provincial Legislature, communities were given the opportunity to incorporate.

Those intending to incorporate required a Letter Patent to apply. The names on the petition had to be residents of the community for six months prior to the petition and the petitioners had to be “not less than 100 male British subjects of full age.” A significant number of names on the petition had to be a “like proportion of landowners.”

The community of Summerland met the requirements of the Municipal Incorporation Act and Summerland was incorporated, as the municipal seal bears out, on Dec. 21, 1906.

On Jan. 21, 1907 in the Band Block, in present-day Lowertown, the candidates were officially sworn into office: J. M. Robinson was declared the reeve and J. C. Ritchie, R.H. Agur, J.R. Brown and C.J. Thomson filed certificates of office as councillors. At this first council meeting, following a ballot vote,

J.L. Logie was given the position as secretary treasurer with a salary of $200 a year.

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John Arendt

About the Author: John Arendt

John Arendt has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years. He has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism degree from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
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