B.C. municipal election 2018: Fernie

Candidates

To be announced.

Boundary

Fernie is located in the Elk Valley, just over 50 kilometres from the B.C.-Alberta border. It’s also situated just under 100 kilometres from Cranbrook.

Population (2016)

5,249

History

At first the home of the Ktunaxa people, Fernie has a history as a coal town that stretches back to 1897, when mining began in the region.

The Canadian Pacific Railroad would arrive in 1898 and the town of Fernie would grow around it.

The community gets its name from William Fernie, who worked to bring coal mining to the Elk Valley.

There’s a legend that he courted and then left the daughter of a Ktunaxa chief who was wearing a black coal pendant around her neck — and that, the story goes, is what he was truly after.

As the sun sets on Mount Hosmer, it’s said that you can see a horse and its rider in its south face. Some say this is the ghost of that girl’s father coming for Fernie.

With coal mining has come a history of disaster in the region; that’s included mining accidents that have taken numerous lives.

But a fire also reduced many of Fernie’s businesses to ash in April 1904. The whole city was subsequently gutted by another fire four years later — that one took 90 minutes.

Fernie rebuilt, however. The city grew, and over the years it would become a resort destination with the creation of Fernie Snow Valley, which was renamed as Fernie Alpine Resort in 1998.

Median total income of couple economic families with children (2015)/B.C. median

$130,816/$111,736

Crime Severity Index (CSI) — 2016

RCMP – rural/B.C.

59.56 (-0.52)/93.63 (-0.17)

Violent Crime Severity Index (VCSI) — 2016

RCMP – rural/B.C.

49.61 (+32.97)/74.86 (-9.81)

Political representation

Federal

Wayne Stetski (NDP)

Provincial

Tom Shypitka (BC NDP)