B.C. Liberal incumbent Norm Letnick hopes to win his third consecutive provincial election in the Kelowna-Lake Country riding.

(JENNA HICKMAN / iNFOnews.ca)

After 14 years as MLA for the Kelowna-Lake Country riding, Norm Letnick announced he will not run for re-election.

Letnick was a Kelowna city councillor from 2005 to 2008 before being elected to the legislature in 2009 for the BC Liberals (now the BC United).

“With the addition of a fourth Kelowna riding, I believe this is a good time to encourage new people to step forward and compete for the challenge and privilege of representing Kelowna and Lake Country voters in the B.C. Legislature,” Letnick said in a news release issued today, April 27.

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His riding will lose some of the downtown Kelowna area and expand north to Coldstream. A new Kelowna-Centre riding has been created.

The next election is scheduled for the fall of 2024.

Letnick currently sits as the shadow minister for Children and Family Development and was the party’s health critic during much of the COVID pandemic.

Earlier, he spent four years at Minister of Agriculture for the BC Liberals.

“Until the next election, I will continue to work hard to fulfill the campaign commitments I made in 2020, and I will continue to support Kevin Falcon and the BC United team as an MLA,” Letnick said in the news release.

“Together, we have accomplished a lot but there is much more work to be done,” he added. “I intend to continue serving our community in a non-elected capacity after the next election, especially in the area of entry-level housing.”

He started his own housing society, called the Ye Ye Housing Society, last year.

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“Thank you to my constituents for their ongoing support until the end of my mandate,” Letnick said in the news release. “I wish all potential candidates the best of luck.”

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