Kelowna Mayor-elect Tom Dias on election night.

Image Credit: Submitted/Tom Dyas

Whether it was inexperienced politicians winning the mayors’ chairs in Kamloops and Kelowna or incumbents being tossed from office, it was clear voters in the region wanted change.

Crime, homelessness and housing affordability were key issues driving the political debate throughout the province leading up to the Oct. 15 election.

“There are deeply intractable problems here which governments are struggling with and voters are just frustrated with the fact the situation hasn’t improved and, if anything, has got worse,” Hamish Telford, a political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, told iNFOnews.ca.

“There have been different approaches to this. Left wing approaches. Right wing approaches. Voters grew frustrated with governments of all stripes and I think this is the real story of the election – frustrated voters were much more motivated to vote on Saturday than other voters.”

In Kamloops, four of five people running to replace retiring Mayor Ken Christian were current or former city councillors.

Car dealership owner Reid Hamer-Jackson, who has no prior city council experience, is the person who won.

READ MORE: Reid Hamer-Jackson is next mayor of Kamloops

The three incumbents who ran for re-election as city councillors – Dale Bass, Mike O’Reilly and Bill Sarai – did get re-elected but finished behind newcomer Katie Neustaeter.

In Kelowna, businessman Tom Dyas, who also has no prior political experience, defeated incumbent Mayor Colin Basran.

READ MORE: ‘Time’ biggest difference in campaigns for Kelowna’s new Mayor Tom Dyas

Five of six incumbent city councillors were re-elected in Kelowna.

Gail Given, who finished second in 2018, finished tenth, one of a very few Kelowna councillors to be voted out office in recent decades.

Three of the top four finishers— Ron Cannan, Rick Webber and Gord Lovegrove — are newcomers to this council, although Cannan served as a Kelowna city councillor from 1996 to 2005 before being elected as a Conservative MP.

Loyal Wooldridge, who was in his first term on council and, therefore, a relative newcomer, finished second.

The longer-term incumbents fell to the bottom of the pack, including Maxine DeHart who topped the polls in 2018 but finished with the eighth and final seat this time.

“These new mayors and councillors have a steep learning curve in front of them,” Telford said. “People who have success in one walk of life often think they can walk into government and have success but it’s a different sort of entity with many more demands.

“A lot of people come from the business world. Businesses are not trying to satisfy everybody. You’re trying to get market share and trying to keep your customers happy. But, when you’re the mayor of Kelowna, you’ve got to keep everybody happy and that’s not possible.”

In Penticton, Mayor John Vassilaki finished third to sitting councillor Julius Bloomfield.

But Jason Reynen, who has no political experience but did launch a vigilante group called Clean Streets Penticton, got 3,155 votes to finish 219 votes behind Bloomfield for second place.

READ MORE: Vigilante group leader running for Penticton mayor

Two of four city councillors running for re-election in Penticton were defeated.

In Peachland, Mayor Cindy Fortin finished a distant third to sitting councillor Patrick Van Minsel with a mere 12% of the vote.

In Summerland, Mayor Toni Boot ran for council instead of trying to get re-elected as mayor and finished tenth in the race for six council seats.

Vernon was an exception to the rule where Mayor Victor Cumming won re-election against sitting councillor Scott Anderson while all four incumbents running for city council were re-elected with two, Kelly Fehr and Kari Gares topping the polls.

Vancouver also saw businessman Ken Sim defeat incumbent Kennedy Stewart while Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum was knocked off by sitting councillor Brenda Locke.

For complete B.C. election results, go here.

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