Diana Cabott (Lib) began campaigning on the Liberal party platform, she received rather predictable replies from Tish Lakes (NDP) and Ron Cannan (Con Incumbent). Not too many surprises about what everyone had to say, both the Conservative and NDP positions went after the carbon angle, while Cabott happily pushed away on economic issues. Another day another sound bite.  With all of the angry retired income trust holders/voters in this retirement haven, speculation abounds on whether Cabott could come close to knocking off the Conservative Cannon.  I was a little surprised to see that Cabott never found a way to allude to income trusts but instead got reported on emphasizing the Libs not running a deficit, an important point here in the Valley, but not the one I would have necessarily expected as her closing point.

 Read the whole thing <a href=”http://“>here

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.

In Kelowna the runway expansion will allow for direct flights from Europe, a big deal in a local economy that enjoys a slice of the uber rich market of world travellers and multi million dollar vacation homes. Add in internationally renowned skiing, the growing reputation of valley wineries, and a new University and sectors of the local economy are anticipating a boost, especially when Kelowna is facing the onslaught of the pine beetle and devestation in the forestry sector. Where the money came from at the federal level is a bone of contention…how could it not be?

Full disclosure – I freelance community orientated work for this paper.

Angela Reid, Green Party Candidate in Kelowna Lake Country has been planning on running in the Kelowna municipal election since November 2007.  Reid will be participating in both races this time around.

Reid ran for the federal Green Party the last time out and hadn’t planned on being the candidate this year due to family priorities.  In an email exchange Reid says her reasons for deciding to add the federal race to her schedule was to make sure there was a qualified prepared candidate running for the Greens in Okanagan Lake Country and she didn’t want to let area voters down. Reid is well known locally for championing green issues and runs a green consulting company.

Once the federal election is done, Reid will return her focus to the local municipal election where three of seven council seats have been vacated, “…I will do my best to represent Green Party policy and raise more awareness about our platform that covers a broad range of issues.  I will then apply the same kind of long-term. logical, sustainable approach to my municipal campaign.”

 As a City Kelowna is in the midst of revising the Official Community Plan with an eye to sustainability, the plan is called”2020 Greening our Future.” Perennial environmental issues here include rapid development and water scarcity.

The local subscription daily in Kelowna, the Daily Courier posted a story about the lack of enthusiasm for politics up at UBCO. UBCO is a only a few years old, and has a fairly small student body.  But the piece states, the students have let the party affiliate clubs lapse and haven’t got them going for the year yet.  This is deep blue conservative country, but a little student interest would be nice. See how much they care http://kelownadailycourier.ca/stories_local.php?id=134778