Kevin Acton

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Kevin Acton

The BC United Party has its candidate for Vernon-Lumby and Kevin Acton says he's excited to get to know the issues the constituents want resolved on a provincial scale and what he can do to win their hearts back to BC United.

Acton is currently the mayor of Lumby, but will now be running to be the MLA in the 2024 BC Election. He won the candidacy for BC United during the riding association’s election last weekend.

“There were about 340 people at the riding association elections. Between (another nominee) and I, we about doubled the party membership and I would say about 95% of the memberships that I sold turned up to vote,” Acton says.

After over a decade in local government, Acton felt it was time to shake things up a bit and address certain issues he's powerless to address as mayor.

“Being in local government for 16 years you just sit there and see what you think can be fixed in provincial government…The challenges around the medical system and seeing our last walk-in clinic close in Vernon and I haven’t even seen a comment from the provincial government on it,” Acton says. “Having fruitful relationships with the past government as opposed to this one where we don’t feel like we’re ever consulted or talked to, it’s been challenging to be in there the last few years so either I wasn’t going to do it again or go up and take a shot at provincial politics.”

His reasons for associating himself with BC United are multiple. Mainly, he feels the party’s values are closest to his personal views.

“I consider myself fiscally conservative, but I am a conservative with a conscience and I don’t believe in human suffering either and I think there are responsibilities in society that we need to look after and we need the money to do so,” Acton says. “This (current) government seems to be so punitive and I want to be a part of a government that’s more rewarding or incentivizing; the carrot instead of the stick. I think we should punish the bad actors, not everybody.”

With the BC Conservatives rising in popularity, there's fear they might split the right and open a lane to an NDP win. Acton is working hard to avoid this.

“I think the BC Conservatives certainly could be a threat; a lot of people are concerned with the way things have been going and it seems like the present government has gone so far left that we’re seeing people go really right to try to balance that out. One of our challenges is going to be to try and bring those people back and make sure they understand that we are going to protect their interest and protect their investments and work on the things that they’re concerned about,” he says.

“One of my main goals in this riding is going to be to find out what we can do to bring the BC United party back together in the region and I’ll be looking forward to finding out what the constituents want from their provincial government and finding out what issues they hold close to their hearts.”

Acton is currently the only candidate for the Vernon-Lumby riding other than NDP incumbent Harwinder Sandhu who is expected to run again for the NDP.

The provincial election will take place on or before Oct. 19, 2024.

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