Winning Kelowna city councillors, standing left to right: Luke Stack, Mohini Singh, Mayor Tom Dyas, Maxine DeHart, Charlie Hodge. Sitting left to right: Ron Cannan, Loyal Wooldridge, Gord Lovegrove, Rick Webber.

Image Credit: Submitted/City of Kelowna

Money is important in local elections but it’s no guarantee of winning.

The two men who topped the polls in the Oct. 15 municipal election in Kelowna each spent more than $28,000 on their campaigns.

Ron Cannan came in first in the polls and spent $29,870, according to B.C. Elections documents released Feb. 2. Loyal Wooldridge finished second in the polls and second in spending at $28,167.

The eight candidates who got elected each averaged $13,885 in spending while the 24 who didn’t make the grade put in an average of about one-third of that, $5,145.

But big spending wasn’t the only factor.

Rick Webber, who finished third in the polls, only spent $2,500. Of course, he had the name recognition going into the campaign as a former TV news broadcaster.

Cannan also had name recognition as a former city councillor and MP while Wooldridge was the only incumbent in the top three but is also chair of the regional district.

While four of the losing candidates spent nothing on their campaigns, five spent more than $10,000 each.

Topping that list, at $16,670, was Indy Dhial who finished 18th and more than 6,000 votes shy of a seat.

The only incumbent to be defeated in the election was Gail Given who spent $13,308 but finished 10th, almost 1,800 votes short.

Susan Ames, Amarjit Singh Lalli and Daniel Joseph also spent more than $10,000 each with Joseph finishing the lowest in 27th place in the field of 32 candidates.

In all, more than $234,000 was spent in the council campaign, $110,000 of that by winners.

The spending limit for Kelowna city council candidates was $48,506.

Close to $218,000 was spent by the five mayoralty candidates for a total election spend of about $452,000.

READ MORE: Dyas underspent Basran but still won mayor’s seat in Kelowna

Mayor candidate spending

• $85,652 – Dyas, Tom
• $95,608 – Basran, Colin (I)
• $35,358 – David Habib
• $772 – Smedley, Glendon Charles
• $235 – Socrates, Silverado

Council candidate spending

• $29,870 – Cannan, Ron
• $28,167 – Wooldridge, Loyal
• $2,500 – Webber, Rick
• $17,285 – Lovegrove, Gord
• $18,578 – Singh, Mohini
• $7,700 – Stack, Luke
• $1,393 – Hodge, Charlie
• $5,584 – DeHart, Maxine
• $4,971 – Kyle, Davis
• $13,308 – Given, Gail
• $5,185 – Truch, Peter
• $15,005 – Ames, Susan
• $9,018 – Wentworth, Noel
• $6,200 – Grewal, Bal
• $5,460 – McMurray, Elaine
• $3,405 – Macauley, Tom
• $8,762 – Kay, James
• $16,670 – Dhial, Indy
• $2,110 – Brar, Amarit
• 0 – Williams, Chris
• $11,150 – Lalli, Amarjit Singh
• $780 – Schlosser, Dan
• $2,494 – Shephard, Anthony
• 0 – Collecutt, Sacheen
• $3,648 – Bocskei, Chris
• $439 – Rogers, Brian
• $12,138 – Joseph, Daniel
• $225 – Sawatzky, Zachary
• 0 – Norman, Ben
• $2,055 – Dahms, Greg
• $545 – Becenko, Chris
• 0 – Fiddler, Darren

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