So many ridings in Canada depend on local community papers to convey information. Kelowna does have a local station CHBC and a local CBC radio station, both are hunting down stories. Many ridings don’t have a local television station, and in the large markets, ridings overlap with broadcast areas and the competition for space is fierce.  Those are all obvious facts, and I have a spot of gratitude for the fact that our media wars are playground spats compared to the full frontal assaults and sieges of our neighbors to the south.

Kelowna’s subscription daily newspaper did a straight up profile of the Okanagan Lake Country NDP candidate, Tish Lakes.
The closing quote might be termed unfortunate by NDP supporters. To be fair to Tish Lakes, she by all accounts seems to accomplished and earnest.  We shouldn’t expect local pols to craft every sentence to stand alone, much like the teams of big gun media consultants do for national candidates. What Lakes said isn’t a gaffe in context, it’s just a shame that quote closes out the story.

All of the local Kelowna papers, like many across the country, will make an honest effort to give each of the candidates reasonable amounts of coverage. I’m looking forward to the possibility of Stockwell Day, whose riding is Okanagan Coquihalla, across the bridge from Kelowna and within the same media community, giving such an interview. I wonder if the uber-foot in the mouth-gods of the Conservative War Room will allow it to happen.