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OPINION

I’m going to give you a few of the best examples I can think of as to why you need to vote in the Oct. 15 civic elections — and why it’s crucial you choose the right candidates.

The temptation is to choose the nice people and on councils around the Thompson-Okanagan, that’s who you’ll find, a bunch of smiling, baby-kissing, glad-handers whose sole purpose is please you, never to offend you.

I have a million examples I could provide but might as well choose my own City of West Kelowna to explain why you should instead choose integrity over how they make you feel.

In 2003, West Kelowna wasn’t yet a city, it was a regional district area with 30,000 people and three directors. Three of the nicest guys you ever wanted to meet held those seats, David Knowles, Len Novakowski and Aaron Dinwoodie.

Marshall Jones, managing editor

The community needed to expand Mount Boucherie arena, a single sheet of ice, because it was booked solid and kids’ hockey teams could barely get on. The directors sold voters on a referendum to spend $3.2 million on a second sheet of ice. But immediately after the results were in, costs started to balloon.

In committee meetings, regional district staff were bullied by a citizens group that was hell-bent on turning the arena into a junior hockey facility that was never disclosed in the referendum. The nice guys refused to pick a side and allowed the arena to be re-designed over and over again — while it was under construction, which is even more expensive.

The Mount Boucherie Expansion Society helped create 175 change orders. The arena opened four years later, unfinished, at $10 million — more than $13 million when ‘finished'.

Had those directors kept focus on doing the right thing instead of trying to appease everyone, they might have saved taxpayers $5 to $10 million dollars.

In 2007, West Kelowna became a city and voters continued to return nice people to the council table. In 2020, the City held open houses across the community about the budget and many of the candidates running this October attended.

I went to one of those open houses and asked council candidate Stephen Johnston about one of the poster boards that said “NEW CITY HALL”. Voters had just finished voting against a new City Hall for the second time. Johnston said it was only there because they were saving money for it.

Five days later and four days after the last open house on the budget, they announced they were going to raid the coffers to build a new City Hall anyway.

The right thing to do would be explain this at the town halls, not lie to me as a citizen, persuade the community — fight for it if they thought it was right. That’s not what nice guys do and not one member of council did.

This kinda stuff goes on all the time.

That’s why I prefer politicians like Scott Anderson, a former councillor now running for mayor in Vernon, even though I don’t agree with much of his politics at all. He’s not a particularly nice guy but he’s not afraid of tackling difficult issues head on, or facing hard truths and he tries to be transparent. I disagree with him but at least I know what I'm getting.

Duane Ophus was like that in West Kelowna, haven't seen anyone like him since. Luke Stack is like that in Kelowna, although he's also a nice guy. Dale Bass is kinda like that in Kamloops.

It’s the greatest frailty in democracy. We elect people who are popular, not people with backbone and they rarely have both.

— Marshall Jones is the Managing Editor of iNFOnews.ca

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