Politics and Government
Municipal government of the Town of Qualicum Beach is structured like the U.S. American council-manager form of government. It is headed by a mayor (who also represents Qualicum Beach on the governing board of the Regional District of Nanaimo) and a four-member council. These positions are filled by at-large elections every three years, as provided by British Columbia law. The current mayor, Teunis Woestbroek, was first elected in 1999, re-elected by acclamation in 2002, re-elected in a contested election in 2005 and again re-elected in 2008. School board trustees, for representation on School District 69 Qualicum, are also elected by residents of the town, the City of Parksville and the surrounding area. The town funds a volunteer fire department, which serves the town and nearby rural communities. The town has a local ambulance station. The nearest full hospital is Nanaimo Regional General Hospital in Nanaimo.
Qualicum Beach is part of the Parksville-Qualicum provincial electoral district, represented by Ron Cantelon of the BC Liberal Party in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Federally, Qualicum Beach, in the Nanaimo—Alberni riding, is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by Conservative Party Member of Parliament James Lunney, who was first elected in 2000 and has been re-elected in 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2011.
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Famous quotes containing the words politics and, politics and/or government:
“Our family talked a lot at table, and only two subjects were taboo: politics and personal troubles. The first was sternly avoided because Father ran a nonpartisan daily in a small town, with some success, and did not wish to express his own opinions in public, even when in private.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)
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—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
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—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)