Riding profile: Two-term incumbent facing three challengers in Kelowna-Mission

The BC Liberals have owned Kelowna-Mission for the past eight years.

With a population of more than 60,000, the riding includes all of Kelowna, south of Highway 97, including the Mission.

The incumbent is Steve Thomson. His challengers are Harwinder Sandhu of the NDP, Rainer Wilkins of the Green Party and Chuck Hardy for the BC Conservatives.

Thomson has two terms under his belt, but isn’t taking anything for granted. The cabinet minister considers election time the equivalent of a performance review.

“I take it seriously. It’s always stressful putting yourself out directly and people assessing how you’ve done,” Thomson said.

Thomson recently turned 65 and said if he’s re-elected, it could be his last term.

“Never say never, but I think that coming out of the other end of this one would mean being close to 70 when finished. It will be another serious discussion with the family at that point,” he said.

NDP candidate Harwinder Sandhu always wanted to become a doctor but settled for being a nurse. The 38-year-old mother of three said she’s passionate about health care and that’s one of the reasons why she decided to take a run at politics.

“They say if you want to see a change, be that change. And the other thing I believe is, if you won’t fight for you, nobody else will. So it’s time to step forward,” Sandhu said.

Sandhu doesn’t actually live in the Kelowna-Mission riding — she says she resides in Coldstream because she can’t afford to live in Kelowna.

“One of the reasons why I still couldn’t buy a house here is affordability,” she said.

After failing to run a candidate in the riding in the last election, The BC Green Party is back in Kelowna-Mission with candidate Reiner Wilkins, an entrepreneur and married father of two.

“My wife and I have our own business and we sell wine for a living,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins said he decided to get into politics after his daughter came home from school wondering why some students were being supplied with lunch.

Wilkins is bucking the trend by not putting up election signs, calling them antiquated.

“Every one of those signs I see, I think could be a sandwich for a kid that’s hungry in this province. They’ve proven statistically that those signs don’t really affect voting, for the most part,” Wilkins said.

BC Conservative Chuck Hardy is giving politics another try after running for mayor of Kelowna in the last municipal election.

The retired former City of Kelowna employee admits he and his party are a longshot but could shake things up.

“We might not be the power, but we might be the balance of power if we get anywhere from eight to 10 seats out of the 10 that’s running,” Hardy said.

Hardy said one of his priorities would be revamping the health care system, starting with raising paramedics’ salaries.

“What do paramedics get paid on standby? Two dollars an hour and the government is saying that’s okay,” he said.