BC election 2017: Kelowna-Lake Country candidates on the stump

The constituency of Kelowna-Lake Country is another Liberal stronghold in the Okanagan.

One of three electoral districts centred in Kelowna, the riding spans the northern half of Kelowna east of Glenmore Drive and the area between the city and Vernon.

It has a population of about 61,000.

Incumbent Liberal Norm Letnick won re-election in 2013 with a better than 2-to-1 margin and is vying for another term.

He’s a former business professor at Okanagan College and was also a member of Kelowna city council.

Erik Olesen is originally from Ontario. The 25-year-old is running for the NDP.

He began post-secondary studies in nursing and biomedicine but is now focused on his political aspirations.

Despite his youth, Olesen has been involved in eight previous political campaigns, including running, at the age of 18, for a seat on Ottawa city council.

The Green candidate is Alison Shaw.

She grew up in the East Kootenay region and has a PhD in resource management and sustainability science.

Shaw started her own sustainability consulting company after a decade-long academic career.

The last all-candidates forum for Kelowna-Lake Country was in Lake Country in front of a group of high school students.

Letnick told the group being a part of the community is important to him.

“I want to continue knocking on doors and listening to people and making sure I understand the community’s perspective on all these issues, so if I should be blessed with another term, I can go to Victoria and advocate strongly and make sure the investments that happen in B.C. – a lot of them come back here to the central Okanagan,” Letnick said.

Olesen said he often hears a common complaint when he talks one-on-one with community members: life in the Okanagan is becoming unaffordable.

“We’re running a good plan that’s going to put money back in people’s pockets, provide better services, make life more affordable and create an economy that’s growing with new jobs and new tech sectors,” Olesen said.

Shaw told the audience the Green Party refuses corporate and union donations on principle and would support lowering the voting age to 16.

She believes her party is gaining support at an accelerated pace.

“I’m drawing support from all across party lines,” Shaw said. “People are tired of the opposition in the legislation, they’re tired of left and right politics. The Greens offer a vision for people to get that non-voter out, the 45 per cent that didn’t vote in the last election.”

In 2013, fewer than 48 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Kelowna-Lake Country.

All candidates agree, on May 9th, they’d like to see much higher voter participation.