City of Powell River Councillor George Doubt has said he will resist calls for his resignation.
At the June 4 committee of the whole meeting, Doubt, who was chairing the meeting, said there were letters in the meeting’s correspondence requesting the resignation of council members, including himself.
He said the first correspondence was from Rebecca Alcock, who called for the resignation of Doubt and councillors Cindy Elliott, Trina Isakson, Rob Southcott and Earl Almeida, citing conflict and causing harm to the city and its people.
“It makes various accusations, including being divisive,” said Doubt. “I want to point out that council has done one thing about the name change since we were elected in 2022. That one thing is to do what many people are asking us to do, and that’s to pass a motion that says we will work toward an opinion poll in the 2026 election so people will have an opportunity to say whether they want a name change or not.
“All the delegations and people approaching council and all the noise that is being made about that has been a reaction to that from the public, not the council that created it. The delegations that have been coming here have created that.”
Doubt said the delegations say they represent everybody, and the fact is, that is not the case. He said there is a large number of people who want to see a name change and a large number of people who don’t.
“I don’t intend to resign because of the letter from Rebecca Alcock asking for five councillors to resign,” said Doubt. “The logic of that is, in a democracy, if five councillors disagree with two councillors, who all have a political right to hold an opinion, that the five should resign and the two should remain. I suggest most democratic organizations work on the majority rule example where if somebody was going to resign, you’d think it would be the minority.”
Doubt said there was correspondence from Lisa Lamacraft that demands his resignation because, as it says in the letter, he is fighting too much for the desire of Tla’amin Nation and not enough for the interests of City of Powell River.
“There is no rule that says because the Tla’amin Nation achieves a goal or a dream that it somehow has to be a loss for residents of the city,” said Doubt. “It’s possible when you work in a collaborative operation, for both sides to win and for both sides to find themselves in a stronger and better community. I’m going to keep fighting for it, so I’m not going to succumb to that request.”
Doubt said there have been several requests for the five councillors to resign. He said there was also a personal email he had recently received and he couldn’t read the contents in a public meeting.
“It talks about me and what the individual thinks about me in the most foul language I have ever seen,” said Doubt, who provided the Peak a copy of the email. “I’m not going to resign because of that and I’m not going to resign because of the harassment people like that are doing to my family. I’m going to continue fighting for what I believe in, which I believe is in the best interests of all the residents of Powell River.”
The email alluded to Doubt participating in an event at Tla’amin where ballots supplied by the Concerned Citizens of Powell River regarding a potential name change were destroyed. The writer said she hoped that Doubt gets removed from office.
Isakson said she has no plans to resign and looks forward to continuing this work among all the other important pieces of work councillors are held to govern as elected leaders of the community.
Elliott said because the conversation is happening on a regular basis, it doesn’t mean council is not doing its work.
“We are moving forward on a number of fronts, even if it’s not the subject of delegations that come here to council,” said Elliott. “Our work is happening and we are focused on trying to do that in a good way.
“I don’t believe if another government, Tla’amin or otherwise, brings something to us that is a concern of theirs, that treating it with less than respect is how we should proceed.”
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