There hasn’t been a mayoral race in Slave Lake since 1992, when councillor Florence Pearson took on incumbent Peter Moore and lost.
Since then elections in 1995, 1998 and 2001 have been absolute snoozers as far as the mayor’s position is concerned. Gerry Allarie twice and Ray Stern once have waltzed into the mayor’s chair without any opposition, but 2004 may be the end of that particular trend.
“I’m running for mayor,” Adult Education Co-ordinator Karina Pillay-Kinnee told The Leader last week. “There’s a few things that have been weighing on my mind.”
One of those things is a concern that the democratic process – not to mention the town and its citizens – is not well served by having only one candidate for the job.
“I want an election,” she says. “I want people to be able to choose.”
Pillay-Kinnee isn’t the only one. Two other people have told The Leader unofficially that they would run for mayor if only to give people a choice. As it stands, though, Pillay-Kinnee is the only candidate so far.
Why is she doing it? Apart from the desire to head off another one-horse race, she says she’s “always been attracted to leadership roles.” She’s interested in setting standards of ethical leadership, of finding ways to make decisions that reflect the values of all the people if that’s possible.
“The only way to do that is to be a leader,” she says.
The role of Town council, as she sees it, is to properly represent the interests of the community it serves.
“The challenge is getting out in the community and finding out,” she says. “I’m not afraid to do that.”
Pillay-Kinnee has no experience on an elected body. She’s been a student council president a couple of times and has served on various committees in town, as chair and in other roles. She says she knows how to run a meeting. Political involvement and community service run in the family. Her father, Pally Pillay was mayor of Slave Lake in the 1980s and a councillor before that. He did it while maintaining a full-time job, something his daughter doesn’t aim to do.
“I gave up a full-time job,” she says, with a run at the mayor’s position in mind.
Pillay-Kinnee has a degree in Zoology and three quarters of another degree in Occupational Therapy. She gave that up when her husband Bill Kinnee took over an oilfield maintenance business and needed her help. She’s worked at the pulp mill, the Community Development Corporation, as a substitute teacher, a waitress and for the past five years (until very recently) with the Town of Slave Lake. Along the way she has done her fair share of volunteering.
“I think I’m pretty well-rounded and committed to the community,” she says. “I have pretty deep roots here.”
In fact at 33 years of age, Pillay-Kinnee has lived almost her entire life in Slave Lake, discounting her school years in Edmonton, and two months following her birth in South Africa.
That country, under the apartheid system, was a place in which Pillay-Kinnee couldn’t have voted, let alone run for public office. Such restrictions on their freedom were among the reasons her parents decided to come to Canada, and also why her father chose to exercise his new freedom by running for office in Slave Lake. His election as mayor caused quite a sensation back in his South African community at the time.
Pillay-Kinnee seems to have inherited his appreciation for involvement in the political process. She hopes that announcing her intentions early will spark interest and maybe inspire broader participation.
“I just want people to get involved,” she says. “It’s important. I’m fascinated by it and I’m looking forward to it too.”
The election is on Monday, Oct. 18. Nomination day is Monday, Sept. 20, between 10:00 a.m. and noon. Returning officer Ed Procyshyn says nominations will not be accepted early or late.

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