ELECTION NOTEBOOK
Advance voting begins today
Advance voting begins today. Advance polls will be open today and Sunday and then Wednesday though next Saturday. Election day is May 9. Voting locations should be on the voter’s cards sent in the mail, or check the Elections BC website, elections.bc.ca/wtv.
In the 2013 provincial election, 366,558 votes (20.34 per cent of total votes) were cast in advance.
Letnick and Thomson blow off candidate forum
Kelowna-area Liberal candidates were no-shows at a candidates forum focused on children and family poverty on Thursday.
Letnick and Kelowna-Mission colleague Steve Thomson both declined invitations to the event, said Myrna Kalmakoff, co-ordinator with Community Action Toward Children’s Health, one of the hosts of the event.
Premier Christy Clark, Liberal candidate for Kelowna West, did not respond to the invitation.
“I found it disappointing there was no Liberal representation there,” said Kalmakoff.
Hot-head politician questions Horgan’s temperament
The pot actually did call the kettle black on the campaign trail Friday.
“John Horgan showed again he doesn’t have the temperament to be premier,” said a BC Liberal news release criticizing the NDP leader’s position on softwood lumber.
The quote was attributed to Liberal cabinet minister Bill Bennett, who has been known in his political career for losing his cool, raising his voice at journalists and constituents, and, in at least one case that led to his resignation from cabinet, firing off a profanity-laced email to a constituent.
Candidates spar over affordable child care
Kelowna-Lake Country candidates disagree vastly on how to deal with the issue of affordable and available child care in the region.
NDP candidate Erik Olesen touted the NDP’s plan for $10-a-day child care plan, saying it will allow parents to get back into the workforce.
Letnick countered, saying $10-a-day child care was not an effective strategy, and that the Liberals are focusing on creating more childcare spaces.
Green candidate Alison Shaw said the Green’s plan to provide free daycare for children under four years old, and will provide stay-at-home parents $500 a month.
Letnick’s portfolio included medical marijuana
Kelowna-Lake Country Liberal incumbent Norm Letnick is the self-professed minister of pot.
“Medical marijuana is part of my portfolio as the minister of agriculture,” he said at a Lake Country Chamber of Commerce candidates forum Thursday night.
Letnick said he has toured several medical marijuana facilities, and he has no problem with the production of it on agricultural land.
The BC Liberals plan use revenue from marijuana sales toward prevention, enforcement, health research, addiction recovery and other mental health supports.
Raising minimum wage would cost jobs, say Letnick
The BC NDP’s plan to increase minimum wage to $15 an hour would negatively impact small businesses and farms and cost jobs in the community, said Letnick.
“Our plan is to continue to increase minimum wage predictably, reliably, but in stages so that we can continue to support our small businesses,” he said.
NDP candidate Erik Olesen said minimum wage will be raised to $15 an hour progressively, not immediately.
“It doesn’t crash a small business, it helps the economy and helps a small business grow by putting money back into people’s pockets and getting people out of poverty,” he said.
Olesen skates around issue of temporary workers
In a 60-second response about temporary foreign workers in Kelowna-Lake Country, Olesen mentioned the need for balance between temporary foreign workers and local jobs six times, but never said what that balance would look like or how it would be achieved.
“The key is balancing two situations and making sure orchardists have the people to make agriculture thrive here in Lake Country,” he said.