McKortoff cruises to victory in Osoyoos with two incumbents

Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff overwhelmed her one-issue candidate Saturday and was easily returned to office.

She will have two familiar faces joining her for the next four years: incumbent Couns. CJ Rhodes and Jim King were also returned to Council.

“I am absolutely delighted that I’ve got CJ and Jim back,” said McKortoff after results were posted. “I just think it’s really important to have some continuity on council.”

Joining the incumbents are lawyer Brian Harvey, who earned the most votes among all council candidates with 1,004, and Myers Bennett, who finished fourth with 686 votes.

“I was pretty comfortable. I didn’t have anxiety today,” said Harvey. “I knocked on a lot of doors and I got really good feedback. I thought I was comfortably over the line. That I would get the most votes, that’s a shock.”

McKortoff received 1,379 votes to easily out-distance challenger Doug Pederson, who entered the race to further marijuana ambitions for the community and gathered 162 votes.

“I didn’t think I was going to lose, but you never know. There are people that have different ways of looking at things so I’m just glad that it worked out the way it did.” said McKortoff. “This is something that I really enjoy and I look forward to working with a good council and with the staff at town hall.

“I won’t have to move out of my office. That’s a good thing.”

A trio of younger candidates — all three of them women — were shut out, Jane Long finishing tops among them with 523 votes, Shelley McIntyre 457 and Sherani Theophilus 390.

“I talked to them all after and I said I certainly appreciated that they put their names forward,” said McKortoff.

“And I certainly hope that they will take some time now, because many of them are new to town, and that they will get involved with some committees, come to council meetings and certainly run in the next election.”

Long expressed disappointment no younger members of the community found a place on council.

“No young folks and no females,” she said. “It could be just a matter of getting young people actually interested in voting.”

But, she added, the time commitment required for council makes it difficult for parents with young families to run for office.

“It’s really hard when you’re a parent and you’re working one or two or three jobs and volunteering to do even more” she said. “I think that’s why you don’t see a lot of young people running for Council, too — that time commitment. Their time is more for work and kids.”