So who wants to be mayor? Candidates finalized for Central Okanagan municipal elections

KELOWNA – Last call has ended for candidates seeking election in Kelowna, West Kelowna and the Central Okanagan Regional District.

Nominations closed today, Sept. 14, with four candidates confirmed for mayor in Kelowna; incumbent mayor Colin Basran, Tom Dyas, Bobby Kennedy and Bob Schewe.

In West Kelowna, Mary Mandarino is a last minute challenger to Gord Milsom as the only candidates to have completed the nomination process by today’s deadline.

In Kelowna, 22 candidates are vying for eight council seats including incumbents Maxine DeHart, Ryan Donn, Gail Given, Charlie Hodge, Brad Sieben, Mohini Singh and Luke Stack.

Hoping to push them aside are Lindsay Bell, Kevin Bond, Mark Boyer, Wayne Carson, Curtis Cibinel, Greg Dahms, Craig Hostland, Graeme James, Amarjit Singh Lalli, Gordon Lovegrove, Jeff Piatelli, Mo Rajabally, Dustin Sargent, Stef Van Meeteren and Loyal Wooldridge.

In West Kelowna, current mayor Doug Findlater is stepping down and running for council along with fellow incumbents Rick de Jong, Rusty Ensign, Rosalind Neis, Bryden Winsby and Carol Zanon.

Challenging for West Kelowna council are Philip Atkins, Jerome Chung, Brad Dobbin, Gerry Evans, Jason Friesen, Joe Gluska, Stephen Johnston, Tiffany Paré, Winston Wammer, Gordon Wiebe and Jayson Zilkie.

In the Central Okanagan Regional District, Mark Bartyik and Jason Melhoff are running for director of Central Okanagan East while Wayne Carson and John Michael Cole are vying for director of Central Okanagan West.

Central Okanagan voters go to the polls Oct, 20.


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John McDonald

John began life as a journalist through the Other Press, the independent student newspaper for Douglas College in New Westminster. The fluid nature of student journalism meant he was soon running the place, learning on the fly how to publish a newspaper.

It wasn’t until he moved to Kelowna he broke into the mainstream media, working for Okanagan Sunday, then the Kelowna Daily Courier and Okanagan Saturday doing news graphics and page layout. He carried on with the Kelowna Capital News, covering health and education while also working on special projects, including the design and launch of a mass market daily newspaper. After 12 years there, John rejoined the Kelowna Daily Courier as editor of the Westside Weekly, directing news coverage as the Westside became West Kelowna.

But digital media beckoned and John joined Kelowna.com as assistant editor and reporter, riding the start-up as it at first soared then went down in flames. Now John is turning dirt as city hall reporter for iNFOnews.ca where he brings his long experience to bear on the civic issues of the day.

If you have a story you think people should know about, email John at jmcdonald@infonews.ca