In 2009: Longtime Liberal cabinet minister George Abbott won his fourth straight election in this riding, defeating NDP candidate Steve Gunner by over 3500 votes, 47-31%.
History & Geography: Known as Salmon Arm from 1924-1966, Shuswap has generally centred around Shuswap Lake and the towns to the south of it. The riding includes the towns of north of Vernon on Highway 97, including Armstrong and Enderby, and the towns between Chase and Revelstoke on Highway 1, including Salmon Arm and Sicamous. The area has voted for the NDP three times in the past, but has otherwise supported right-wing parties.
Basic Stats:
Population: 55510 (36th)
Size: 8607 km (23rd)
Density: 6.4 people/km (63rd)
Candidates
Liberals-Greg Kyllo: A Sicamous councillor, Kyllo is the president of Twin Anchors Marine Group, which operates luxury vacation houseboats. His father, Glenn, was a mayor and counillor in the town of Taylor. He has lived in Sicamous for 35 years, and studied at Okanagan College.
NDP-Steve Gunner: A farmer, Gunner is president of North Okanagan Poultry Processing Incorporated in Armstrong, which raises pasture raised organically fed chicken and turkeys. He is also manager of the Armstrong Curling Club in the fall and winter, and ran the largest specialty mushroom farm in Canada for many years.
Conservatives-Tom Birch: A project manager for a forestry software company, Birch lives in Salmon Arm. He has worked for a number of companies in the forest industry, and also has worked in Africa for a non-profit. He graduated from Trinity Western with a degree in communications.
Greens-Chris George: An entrepreneur, George has had a varied career managing restaurants and retail outlets. George also was a financial planner and technology consultant to small businesses. He is currently a student at Thompson Rivers University.
Advocational Party-Johanna Zalcik: Zalcik is one of two candidates running for the Advocational Party, which has existed for seven years but is running candidates for the first time. The party has over $2.8 million in assets, but little is known about them.
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