B.C. election: NDP announce Smith, Kulik as Central Okanagan candidates

The BC NDP has filled out its slate of Central Okanagan candidates for this month’s provincial election.

On Friday, the political party said Krystal Smith will run in Kelowna-Mission, with Justin Kulik as its candidate for Kelowna-Lake Country.

The NDP’s other candidate in the area is Spring Hawes in Kelowna-West.

Smith, born in Kelowna, is a senior ministerial assistant with B.C.’s Ministry of Citizen’s Services.

In Kelowna-Mission, she will face Rene Merrifield of the BC Liberals, who have held the seat since 1996.

In the 2017 election, Steve Thomson cruised to victory, winning close to 58 per cent of the vote. In December, Thomson announced his retirement from politics.

2:03 Poll shows B.C. NDP with a sizeable early lead in election campaign.

Meanwhile, Kulik is a university student who ran for the federal NDP in the 2019 national election.

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In that election, he placed third in Kelowna-Lake Country with 12.1 per cent of the votes (8,381). Tracy Gray of the Conservatives took the riding with 45.6 per cent of the vote (31,497) and Stephen Fuhr of the Liberals came in second at 32.7 per cent (22,627).

For this month’s provincial election, Kulik is facing a tough fight in Kelowna-Lake Country.

2:28 How do you vote in the upcoming B.C. provincial election?

The BC Liberals have held the riding since its inception in 1996, with Norm Letnick capturing 60.14 per cent of the vote (13,834) in the 2017 provincial election.

Next was Erik Olesen of the BC NDP at 20.66 per cent of the vote (4,753) followed by Alison Shaw of the BC Green Party at 19.2 per cent (4,416).