Candace Knoll was elected to the Board of Education of School District No. 43 (Coquitlam) on October 17, 2026. The City of Coquitlam's official count gives her 10,599 votes, third of the nine candidates for Coquitlam's four trustee seats, and the City's Chief Election Officer declared her elected on October 21, 2026. Rosey Manhas, second, had 12,684 votes, and Chuck Denison, fourth, 9,446. The City's results print no elector organization for any candidate, and VoteMate lists her as an independent. The Dispatch reported that she was one of four new trustees on the nine-member board, with Blaire West, Jessica Morrison and Tracy Green, and quoted her social media post after the vote: "Youth are our future, and we have a collective obligation to prepare the next generation to be just, fair, and socially responsible citizens."
The City's results of the February 22, 2025 by-election for the seat left by Jennifer Blatherwick give her 137 of 1,169 valid votes, fourth of five candidates; Rosey Manhas won with 696. The Dispatch reported before that vote that she was a United Steelworkers member and longtime TELUS employee, a past board member of the New Westminster and District Labour Council and a director of the Hogan's Alley Society, and that her 2025 priorities included student mental health, student hunger and the rebuild of Hazel Trembath Elementary. Freshet News's 2026 candidate profile prints her occupation as retired after 27 years at TELUS and her years in Coquitlam as 27. By her own account, on her campaign site and VoteMate, she founded and leads the Junior Black Achievement Awards Society, serves a third term on the Hogan's Alley Society board, and received the King Charles III Coronation Medal in November 2024; voche.me has not checked these with those bodies.
Freshet News reported on July 4, 2026 that she was making a second bid as a labour candidate, endorsed by the New Westminster and District Labour Council, CUPE 386, the United Steelworkers, Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, Port Coquitlam Councillor Nancy McCurrach and Port Moody Councillor Samantha Agtarap, with three planks: accelerating school construction to stop overcrowding, equitable funding to stabilize learning environments and support staff, and mental health, well-being and safety for students and staff. On September 16 the paper listed her among the labour council's endorsed candidates. Her campaign site's endorsements page carries the statements of West, McCurrach and Agtarap.
Her campaign site sets out the three pillars in detail. Under The Circle and Infrastructure she promises to keep the Hazel Trembath replacement and the Burke Mountain Secondary project on track, advocate for approval of Burke Mountain Middle/Secondary and Marigold Elementary, and champion a funding model that secures land for schools before high-rises go up. Under Complexity and Continuity she promises to work on special education waitlists, competitive pay to recruit and keep specialists, and investment in staff. Under Community Care and Accountability she promises staffing for custodians and support staff, stable full-day positions for education assistants, sensory rooms and calm-down spaces, safer routes to school with the City, and stronger ties with municipal recreation and library services.
Her 2026 blog posts add more. She writes that she will lobby the Province for an intensity-of-need funding structure for complex learning needs, mental health and language supports; push for funding to modernize heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems; fight for sensory-friendly zones in capital planning and budget lines for social-emotional learning programs; advocate for funding and training for restorative justice programs in all SD43 schools; champion a digital responsibility framework covering student data privacy and AI; expand resources for settlement workers in schools; and co-fund outdoor learning spaces with the Kwikwetlem First Nation.
In Freshet News's candidate profile of September 30, 2026 she named student and staff safety on the way to, in and leaving school as her top issue, said she had attended board meetings for two years, and promised to push for agendas published early with reports in plain words, public consultations and a public budget information session before the board votes on the final budget. She said AI can help students with learning disabilities but must not do their critical thinking, and that the district's executive recruitment process, with an outside search firm, works well. Freshet News reported that she had run against Manhas in the 2025 by-election and that the new trustees join the board with the three returning Coquitlam incumbents.
The Dispatch's roundup of September 24, 2026 reported that her campaign emphasizes modernizing and expanding schools to address overcrowding and reduce reliance on portables, and quoted her site's pledge to ask the Province to reform funding formulas so mental health resources and language supports are consistent.
