Penticton city councillor to run for South Okanagan-West Kootenay riding in 2019 federal election | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
Subscribe

Would you like to subscribe to our newsletter?

Penticton News

Penticton city councillor to run for South Okanagan-West Kootenay riding in 2019 federal election

Penticton Coun. Helena Konanz protested a planned 5.5 per cent tax hike, arguing for a sum from reserves to reduce the increase to 3.5 per cent at Monday's council meeting on Feb. 15, 2016.

PENTICTON - The Conservative Party of Canada has announced that a Penticton City Councillor is the candidate to run in the 2019 federal election.

Helena Konanz will run in the riding of South Okanagan-West Kootenay next year.

Konanz announced her intentions to run for the Conservative Party candidate nomination in June with encouragement from local members. This was after announcing she would not be running again in the municipal election this October.

With her announcement came endorsements from MP Dan Albas, former MP Tom Siddon, MLA Dan Ashton, former MLA’s Bill Barisoff, Rick Thorpe, and Jim Hewitt.

“I am extremely excited to be the Conservative candidate for this riding. During the next few months I plan to meet with citizens across the South Okanagan-West Kootenay to better understand their needs and concerns, and bring my knowledge and experience from my time spent in municipal government and the private sector to serve all residents in this riding,” she says in a media release.

Konanz was elected onto Penticton City Council in 2011, winning the second most votes that year, and was elected again in 2014.

She has also served on both the board of the Regional District, Okanagan Similkameen and the Southern Interior Local Government Association.

Since entering office, Konanz has focused on promoting business throughout the region, which includes the role as city liaison to the Penticton Industrial Development Association and pushing provincial leaders and local stakeholders for more assistance in skills trades training.

After graduating from UCLA with a political science degree, Helena travelled the world as a tennis professional, participating in such tournaments as Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open.

After retiring from professional tennis, Konanz worked for NIKE in their retail management division and opened stores for the company throughout the west coast of the United States.

Konanz married South Okanagan native Adam Konanz and they opened up their business, Konanz Chiropractic, twenty-five years ago. They are a family of entrepreneurs, with their two children, Zakary and Zoe, running their own small businesses by the time they were 20 years old.

She recently completed a master's degree at UBC Okanagan in political science.

Konanz volunteered as the coach of the Penticton High School Tennis Team for nearly a decade and has won seven Canadian National Tennis Championships.


To contact a reporter for this story, email Shelby Thevenot or call (250) 819-6089 or email the editor You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won’t censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2018
iNFOnews

  • Popular vernon News
View Site in: Desktop | Mobile