Acity council post is often a stepping stone to higher office so it shouldn't come as a surprise to see several new MLAs hailing from local governments.
So why has there been no serious effort by the province to deal with the inevitable and expensive fallout?
Currently, at least eight civic politicians are scrambling to figure out what to do after being elected provincially last week and B.C.'s Local Government Act isn't much help.
The choice is either a costly byelection or the newly minted MLA can go full-martyr and do both jobs (at least until January). But let's face it, doing both jobs is an impractical option. One job will get less attention and that will likely be the civic post, where there are no party obligations or party whips requiring appearances.
Councillors such as Coquitlam's Linda Reimer, the MLA-elect for Port Moody-Coquitlam, will do their best to make a good decision to serve constituents but it's obvious that there needs to be more sensible rules governing this eventuality.
