BC Conservative candidate for Kelowna-Mission Gavin Dew.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Gavin Dew
September 18, 2024 - 6:00 AM
The new BC Conservative candidate for Kelowna-Mission was the Chief Financial Officer for a cannabis company that had to sell after going nearly $5 million into debt.
Gavin Dew has joined the Conservative Party of BC to replace removed candidate Alexandra Wright.
His professional background on the party’s site omits the fact that he was the CFO for Lotus Ventures, a cannabis company that had to go insolvent because of its debts.
Dew became CEO of Lotus Ventures in 2019 and was in that role until about a month ago when a buyer in Ontario purchased the company.
Lotus Ventures’ former president and CEO Dale McClanaghan said Dew mostly advised the company’s general strategy.
“He was helpful in general strategy and also oversight and governance, reviewing financial statements and that sort of thing,” he said.
Dew’s campaign manager Larry Gray said Dew has been involved in a lot of businesses so his background on the party's website couldn’t have everything.
“There was probably no purpose for it, I mean lots of us do lots of different things, are involved in lots of different stuff,” Gray said. “He got very limited compensation, so he was basically just giving them oversights on financials and reporting. He didn't do any transactions or management.”
Gray has only been with the Dew campaign for about a week so he said he had't had a chance to read Dew's bio on the BC Conservatives' site.
READ MORE: Former Kelowna BC Conservative candidate allegedly told to falsify fundraising report
The company defaulted five times during Dew’s tenure for failing to file reports and pay fees, according to the BC Securities Commission.
In August of 2023, Lotus Ventures reported a net loss of $1.8 million and a net loss of $4.9 million the year before.
By the time Lotus Ventures went insolvent, which means it wasn’t able to pay its debts, the company owed about 40 different creditors a total of $4.86 million.
Since Lotus Ventures was bought out the employees were able to keep their jobs.
Back in 2016 when Dew ran under the BC Liberal banner The Tyee published an article about how his highlighted Harvard University education was actually a week-long course on leadership. This time around his biography for the BC Conservatives doesn’t include his Harvard education.
McClanaghan said he’s known Dew for 20 years.
"He's been around campaigns and he's run before. He’s one of the people that actually reads and thinks about broader public policy things, he's always up to date on that stuff,” he said. “There's an endorsement.”
Dew’s BC Conservatives biography includes the fact that he recently launched an indoor playground with his wife called Play Area.
Dew did not respond to an interview request via email.
Click here for Dew’s campaign page.
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