Hi Alton here. I have decided to run for Mayor in 2026 but I am keep this website up for transparency. You can visit my new site here.
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Originally born in Sechelt, I graduated from Chatelech Secondary in 2004 and moved to Vancouver to pursue an education and a career. After completing an electrical apprenticeship, I returned to the Sunshine Coast in 2014 with my wife and young child to take over a long-running business in Sechelt’s downtown (Sew Easy in Trail Bay Centre) and live in my childhood home. I got involved in the Sechelt Downtown Business Association from 2014-2018 (after volunteering with communications as a teenager), and I got an introduction to politics through that organization. During my time with the SDBA, I quickly rose up to First Vice President, and helped to oversee a funding transformation of the organization. That funding model is still unique in BC, as other Business Improvement Areas explore new and innovate methods of funding their work. Eventually I served a period as Acting President, and oversaw a transition to a new Board of Directors.
I’ve never really considered myself a political person. I find that I want to help everyone, regardless of their problems and how they got into their predicament. I was a teenager during an era of deep cuts to social services, and my mother spent many years as a volunteer advocate, helping people navigate an increasingly complex system that frequently left people with nowhere to turn, and no one else willing to help them. I spent a lot of time helping her with that work, and I still get the occasional comment of recognition from people in the street, even though that was 20 years ago now.
Politics is something I came into out a need to help my community do better. I first ran for Council in 2018 with a goal towards developing Tomorrow’s Sechelt, a place where my kid could graduate from high school, and pursue further education, and decide to live and work and love here. I still firmly believe in that goal, that Sechelt needs to be a welcoming, prosperous community full of opportunities for all ages and walks of life.
I think it’s something that everyone should give consideration to, and I hope you’ll take the time to learn a bit more about me, about the election, and about the other candidates who have put their names forward. I truly believe that everyone who decides to run for Council has their communities best interests at heart, the differences lie in how we get there.
In you supported me in the past election. I am running for Mayor of Sechelt in 2026 and I would appreciate your support again.