Joe Cramer
Background, public record, forum positions and unanswered questions for Joe Cramer, a 2026 Armstrong mayor candidate.
Office: Mayor
Joe Cramer is seeking a second term as mayor.
He was elected in 2022 with councillors Jessie Valstar, Ryan Nitchie, Neil Todd, Mark Wehner, Steven Drapala and Shirley Fowler.
Cramer’s campaign emphasizes infrastructure renewal, financial sustainability, managed growth and communication.
The mayoral forum gave voters a clearer picture of how he defends the current council’s record.
On the Comprehensive Armstrong Revitalization Initiative, Cramer rejected the argument that the public had not been consulted.
He listed workshops, walks, business sessions and online engagement, and cited thousands of website interactions and more than a thousand responses on design information. His argument was not that everyone liked the eventual design. It was that consultation clearly occurred.
He also acknowledged what he considered a communication mistake.
Cramer said the City had presented the Pleasant Valley Boulevard work as a revitalization project, when the underlying reality was that major infrastructure beneath the street needed replacement anyway.
In his words, the infrastructure was the project and the streetscape was essentially the part residents saw.
That distinction matters because it helps explain how Cramer views the controversy: not primarily as a question of whether the work needed to happen, but whether the City explained the nature of the project clearly enough.
On the Rosedale bollards, Cramer said design work was already underway to remove them and replace them with more permanent curb treatments, subject to budget approval.
On Armstrong-Spallumcheen relations, Cramer offered a different explanation from candidates who describe the relationship as simply deteriorating.
He said many of the disagreements are structural: two municipalities, different tax bases, different expectations and outdated agreements that need to be modernized formally.
That is an argument for rules and negotiated agreements rather than relying on personal relationships alone.
Previous public office: Mayor, 2022-present.
Record summary: OCP adoption, CARI, infrastructure planning, municipal budgets and water planning.
From the forum: Defended the amount of CARI consultation while acknowledging the City could have communicated more clearly that the project was fundamentally an infrastructure replacement.
Another way to look at it: Extensive consultation does not guarantee residents will like the result. It does weaken the simpler claim that residents were never asked.
What I’d like to know: Does Cramer believe the main CARI problem was how the project was communicated, or are there design decisions he would now change as well?