Basran sinks Trio Marine partner
Mayor Colin Basran easily brushed aside a challenge from a friend turned rival to win a second term as Kelowna’s mayor.
Basran won almost 57 per cent of the votes in Saturday’s municipal election, compared to the 30 per cent earned by Tom Dyas.
All seven incumbent councillors who were seeking re-election were returned to office, an outcome Basran said indicated public faith and confidence in the work done by this council.
“I am so excited that all of the incumbents got in, because we get along so well and we have done some amazing things together and we’re going to do even more,” Basran told dozens of cheering supporters who gathered at the Curious Cafe in downtown Kelowna.
“Next week, the work starts again.”
With all 21 polling stations reported, Basran had 18,118 votes.
Second-place finisher Tom Dyas had 9,518 votes, while Bobby Kennedy had 2,671 votes (8.4 per cent) and Bob Schewe had 1,507 votes (4.7 per cent). Basran, 40, and Dyas were friends, but Dyas announced in September he would run against Basran. Dyas said Basran had not shown sufficient leadership and firmness on issues like downtown disorder and homelessness. He made early headlines by saying Basran wasn’t doing enough to keep Costco from leaving Kelowna.
But Basran’s convincing margin of victory suggested most voters did not buy into Dyas’s narrative of the election campaign. Basran was ahead as the results were announced from each of the 21 polling areas, suggesting his support is both deep and wide across the city.
In remarks to reporters, Basran said it was a “difficult campaign” that was characterized by a high degree of “negativity.”
“That was difficult for myself and my family to navigate,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I’m really proud of the campaign we ran.”
Basran said his top issues for the start of his second term were addressing social issues, housing affordability and transportation.
Dyas, a partner with Trio Marine Group, operates the Skaha Lake Marina and caused controversy in 2015 when he and his group proposed a commercial waterslide for the Penticton park.
Basran, a former television reporter and realtor, first won election as a city councillor in 2011. He defeated Sharon Shepherd in 2014 by winning 56.7 per cent of the vote, identical to his level of support on Saturday.
Asked when he thought he had a good chance of winning during the campaign, Basan said it was during a mayoral forum hosted by the chamber of commerce.
At the forum, Dyas, a former chamber president, raised some eyebrows by advocating the current City Hall be turned into a convention centre and performing arts centre, and a new City Hall, incorporating both a firehall and a homeless shelter, be built outside the downtown core.
On Saturday, when asked if the two would remain friends, Dyas said he has competed against friends in business and in sports before, and he is still friends with them to this day.
“I believe the mature aspect of it and looking forward is yes, there will be communications that will go forward,” said Dyas.
“It will obviously be a little rustier than it was at one point in time, but is that potentially something that is good for the community? I think so.”
The loss came as a surprise to Dyas, who thought the community was looking for change.
“We felt from the communication that we had within the town and from a lot of individuals . . . they were uncomfortable with what was happening, and they wanted change,” he said. “They were uncomfortable with what was happening with the safety aspect downtown, they were uncomfortable with the traffic and the things that weren’t being completed with regards to the bypasses and in the Upper Mission, they were uncomfortable with housing costs (and) they were uncomfortable all of these things were adding up with regards to tax increases, so it is surprising that it was not closer.”