ForKelowna is out with list of preferred city council candidates

KELOWNA – Just like FourChange did in 2011, the freshly renamed organization, ForKelowna has released a list of candidates it thinks you should vote for in the 2014 Kelowna election.

The group has gone through what it calls a “hiring” process, to access the candidates who responded to its invitation to fill out a survey.

Those results have been posted to the FourChange website.

The group has already said it is supporting the re-election of all four incumbent councillors: Maxine DeHart, Mohini Singh, Luke Stack and Gail Given. The group also supports councillor Colin Basran for mayor.

ForKelowna asked a six questions and the answers from the candidates who chose to respond can be found at the group’s website.

“After our research and assessment, ForKelowna feels confident that four new candidates stand out in terms of the experience, skills, passion and balance they could bring to the new council,” a media release reads.

The four candidates being recommended by the committee following their vetting process are: Ryan Donn, Tracy Gray, Brad Sieben and Laura Thurnheer.

The media release goes on to say none of the candidates asked for their endorsement, and on the other side of the coin, the group didn’t seek the candidate’s permission to recommend them.

In 2011, three of the four candidates endorsed FourChange were elected. Colin Basran, Gail Given, Gerry Zimmerman and Carol Gran all received the group's support. Only Gran was defeated.

The steering committee behind ForKelowna includes Cal McCarthy, president of SW Audio+Visual, Pushor Mitchell partner Brad Cronquist, Voyager RV Centre president Rodney Friesen, Flightcraft CEO Barry Lapointe, Jorin Wolf Interior Design president Jorin Wolf and senior underwriter at Interior Equities Corp. Darryl Doerkson.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.