ENDORSEMENTS / SUPPORT

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sep 28, 2022

NORTH OKANAGAN LABOUR COUNCIL MUNICIPAL ENDORSEMENTS

In advance of the October 2022 Municipal Elections, the North Okanagan Labour Council has undertaken a rigorous
endorsement process in search of the best candidates for everyday working class folks and friends of organized labour
and trade unions to support in their bid to be elected to municipal positions in the Valley.

The Labour Council reviewed several applications and assessed them on several metrics. These included past experience,
volunteerism, history with unions, involvement with community organizations and NPOs, assessment of critical issues,
their platform, and their positions on topics of interest to labour including, but not limited to, living wages, pay equity,
affordability, housing, the environment, contracting out of public services, public private partnerships, shopping local,
job creation, ethical procurement, and truth and reconciliation.

In order to have been considered for endorsement, candidates needed to submit an application package by the
deadline. If a particular individual was not selected through this process, it either means they did not apply for
endorsement, or that they were not successful in the approval process that was very competitive this year.

The 2022 candidates that received an endorsement from the North Okanagan Labour Council are:

For Kelowna City Council:
• Davis Kyle
• Gordon Lovegrove
• Loyal Wooldridge
• Mohini Singh

For Vernon City Council:
• Kelly Fehr

For Vernon School District 22 Trustee:
• Mark Olsen

Each of these candidates have demonstrated through the application process and in their record that they have a
sincere interest in advocating for the interest of working-class citizens in their respective communities. Each has
demonstrated their commitment to closely working with our organization in the future should they been elected in the
Fall, and we look forward to that opportunity.

Please notify the public that the aforementioned candidates will be supported by our organization and the affiliate
unions that we represent. Affiliates will be responsible for disseminating this endorsement to their members and the
public, but are also free to endorse other candidates as they deem appropriate. For reference, a non-exhaustive list of
the affiliates we represent can be found at https://www.oklabour.org/our_affiliates.

In Solidarity,

Ian Gordon, President – North Okanagan Labour Council
E: nolcpres@gmail.com 

https://www.oklabour.org/election_endorsements_announced?fbclid=IwAR0EhyBYDK50HsR87FWJiBteiaYVosC1LBrJ2UCdtIjqo5xKA6lGM6_Bbac

  Dear CAN! listserve,

As we all know, our climate is starting to change dramatically as tipping points are reached. We are now seeing unprecedented heat domes, wildfires and weather events that negatively impact our health and our livelihoods. The world needs to take action - there is no time left to waste. 

One really important opportunity for climate action that people may not be aware of are the BC local government elections (municipal, regional and school district) on Saturday, October 15th 2022. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) estimates that over 50 percent of emissions are under the direct influence of local governments, in areas such as energy use in buildings, land use, transportation, waste, and food. Also, since local governments are the level closest to the community, they are also on the front lines of response efforts when preparing for the impacts of climate change. 

There’s now a lot of information about the candidates for these important local elections. Many people have been asking us at CAN! to help them understand who to vote for in terms of climate action.

Our core group at CAN! has met to discuss how best to approach this, and we’ve had a lot of discussion to try to figure it out. Here are our responses for the Vernon election, other Okanagan elections and the School Board elections.

Vernon municipal election

The information we used was as follows:

• The CAN! pledge for four climate principles (attached)
• The SENS pre-forum Q&A
• The SENS/CAN! forum recording, or try https://fb.me/e/2IYCg5vGH: both on the SENS      Facebook page.
• The Vital Vernon      questionnaire’s ‘Environment’ questions, which are identical to the Vernon questions on the Green      Okanagan questionnaire. 

In the end, we decided to each read through all of the above information, and then score each candidate three times, based on their:

1. Experience: what they have done in their lives so far that shows experience in contributing meaningfully to climate action on Council – with relevant work on committees, boards and organizations feeling like the closest approximation to what they would be required to do on Council.
2. Intention: what do their statements in questionnaires, forums and personal websites show in terms of well thought out plans for climate action on Council?
3. Priority: What indication have they given of how high a priority climate action will be to them in their work on Council?

Five of us each did our scoring separately, then we met to discuss the results.

In the end, the highest scores belonged to two people:

• Victor Cumming, candidate for Mayor, and
• Brian Guy, candidate for Councillor

With the two closest runners-up being:

• Brian Quiring, candidate for Councillor, and
• Kelly Fehr, candidate for Councillor

HOWEVER, we were really pleased to see that almost all other candidates show good knowledge of, and commitment to, Vernon’s Climate Action Plan. In the case of all incumbents who are running as Council candidates, and most of the new candidates for Council as well (apart from Andy Wylie, who did not respond), we feel the CAP is in safe hands if they are elected, as all of the above have signed the CAN! pledge on principles for climate action (attached), amongst other promising signs.

Since many of you are going to be voting on other issues beyond climate action, we encourage you to look at the Vital Vernon website to see where the candidates stand on other social, economic, cultural and health issues crucial to our community.

One reminder though – if you live in the City of Vernon, you will be electing one mayor and six councillors. While you can vote for candidates for all six councillor positions, if there is a smaller number that you actually want elected, you are better advised to vote for only those ones, to avoid diluting your vote. For instance, if there are two candidates you really support, voting for another four candidates you are not that enthusiastic about will reduce the chances of your two favoured candidates being elected.

You are welcome to forward this email on to other Vernon/Okanagan voters.

Best wishes,

CAN!

https://www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/388962/Vernon-s-Climate-Action-Network-ranks-its-choices-for-council-school-board?fbclid=IwAR1Ojj-Yefnb8vHM1AkbtGRzskH8_EB3a8HO-Pi0PE3_w2yicVJ634ACw00