With apologies to your sweetheart, we hope the top priority for those that are living in the Kelowna West riding is getting out to the polls to vote for a new MLA on this Valentine’s Day.
The Kelowna West riding is up for grabs in a byelection today with five candidates looking to replace Christy Clark, the former premier and MLA.
Related: Where to vote
And while the contest doesn’t seem to be getting much play outside of the local riding, it has shown a solid slate of candidates and an actual race for an important seat, which has been owned by the BC Liberal party for the past several years.
Liberal Ben Stewart, NDPer Shelley Cook, Green Robert Stupka, Libertarian Kyle Geronazzo and B.C. Conservative Mark Thompson have all done an excellent job, just by throwing their collective hats in the ring to stand for public office.
Keeping track of this gang of political hopefuls is much like a day-time drama. We’ve got Ben, who gave up his seat to Christy, only to want it back now that she left. We’ve got Shelley, who wanted that seat but failed, retreated into her work, and now wants it back. And we’ve got plenty of attention from outsiders and newcomers in Robert, Kyle and Mark.
We had the band of merry Liberals who came to the area to support Ben as well as leaders from the NDP, Greens and the Libertarians to town.
We applaud the efforts of the candidates in this byelection and now we turn it over to you, the voter, to do your part in the democratic process.
You know what they say, you can’t complain if you don’t vote.
And while that is likely not true in this day and age of complain-about-everything, we do urge residents in the riding to get out and cast ballots.
And when you’re done that, spend some time with someone special to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Check our web site at kelownacapnews.com once the polls close at 8 p.m. for coverage and election results.
To report a typo, email: edit@kelownacapnews.com.
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kparnell@kelownacapnews.com
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