Cramer ‘intimidated’ but confident in role as Armstrong’s new mayor

Sep 13, 2022 | 6:00 AM

A man with no political experience said he is “intimidated,” but excited to become Armstrong’s new mayor.

Joe Cramer, who moved to Armstrong from Pitt Meadows about four years ago, is the city’s new acclaimed mayor after being unopposed in the 2022 General Local Election.

“I am pretty intimidated by the whole thing,” Cramer told Vernon Matters.

“But there’s a great group of people in Armstrong through the city staff and the previous councillors and mayor that offered to provide me any assistance I require, so I’m looking forward with a positive attitude to get started.”

Cramer does not have any personal political experience, having recently retired from a 35 year career with the B.C. Ambulance Service, but when speaking with Vernon Matters, he did say he had been interested in local politics for the past several years.

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“I was very interested previously before moving to town and helped get a friend elected,” said Cramer.

“I took a keen interest in it and for the last eight years have been following politics fairly closely, particularly in Armstrong. For a little more than two years, I attended just about every council meeting via Zoom and community meetings regarding some of the projects that were going on.”

Though he has no political experience of his own, Cramer said he has lots of leadership experience from his time with the ambulance service that he hopes to bring to the council chamber.

“I’m [also] hoping to provide some clear vision and a fresh set of eyes to address any of the community’s concerns,” added Cramer.

Once officially proclaimed as mayor, Cramer will take over from Chris Peiper, who has served Armstrong council for 31 years, including 14 as mayor.

“Huge shoes to fill. Chris has really dedicated a lot of time to the city and has done some great things,” said Cramer.

“[Peiper has] been very forthcoming with me and made himself available for questions and answers, We’ve had some discussions and he has almost taken me a little bit under his wing. We’re going to continue to work together until the election results are final and help bring me up to speed on some of the things that are going from there.”

He added that some of Armstrong’s current council have also helped bring Cramer up to speed in regards to the history of the city and the history of council’s decisions.

“So it’s not like I’m going in without assistance.”

Cramer stated that his main priority once in office will be to look over the Official Community Plan.

“[The OCP] hasn’t been completed or finished in some time, and the previous community plan we didn’t get through all the projects, some of the boxes aren’t ticked,” Cramer told Vernon Matters.

“So with some public input, I think that’s going to pave us a road map for moving forward and identifying what we require in the city and where we are going put it. That is definitely be the first building block that’s important to me.”

Though Cramer’s seat is secure, there is still a race for the six available councillor positions. Cramer could not officially endorse any of the candidates in his discussion with Vernon Matters, but did state that he would like to see the incumbent candidates back in the council chamber.

“It’s absolutely necessary to keep some of those councillors going, and they’re popular councillors, so I don’t think it’s going to be an issue, but they bring the history of the city and the history of decision-making forward so when we’re looking back as to why decisions were made, perhaps differently than we would like to make them in the future, we will have the history of why those decisions were made,” said Cramer.

He noted that just three of the current councillors are seeking re-election, allowing newcomers to get in and make their mark on the City of Armstrong.

The declared councillor candidates for the City of Armstrong are: