Findlater won’t seek re-election
A politician whose long association with the Westside stretches back to a time when it was formally known as Area G and Area H won’t run for re-election this fall.
Doug Findlater, a city councillor and former West Kelowna mayor, has decided to retire from civic politics after a nearly 20year career.
“It is time to devote more time to family and personal matters, as well as get my postpandemic travel plan going,” Findlater wrote Tuesday on his Facebook page.
“I could not have devoted my time and energy without the support and encouragement of my wife Willie, who is my rock. I am eternally grateful to her for supporting me in local politics,” Findlater said.
In his post, Findlater also said he hoped voters in October would elect candidates who are “more fiscally responsible”, echoing his earlier criticism that recent tax hikes approved by council have been excessive.
“My hope is that the city will continue to address core infrastructure and program needs in West Kelowna, albeit at a more modest financial cost and pace,” he said.
In the early 2000s, Findlater, then recently retired from a career with the federal government, oversaw a committee charged with deciding the Westside’s political future.
At the time, it was the largest unincorporated area in B.C. with Lakeview Heights called Area G and Westbank referred to as Area H under governance of the Kelownabased Central Okanagan Regional District.
The provincial government had made it plain it would no longer pay most of the costs for services such as transportation and policing for the area, with a population of almost 30,000.
After years of study, two options were presented to Westsiders in a June 2007 referendum: join the City of Kelowna or incorporate a new municipality. The latter option was narrowly chosen by voters, though Findlater and most members of the study committee had favoured amalgamation with Kelowna.
“Our city was born into turmoil in 2007,” Findlater said, referring to the close vote and the hard feelings that ensued. In the municipality’s first civic election, in the fall of 2007, the mayoralty was won by Rosalind Neis whose entire platform was based on undoing the referendum result and effecting amalgamation with Kelowna.
But other candidates who shared her view failed to get elected to council and there was no subsequent effort toward amalgamation with Kelowna.
Westsiders who had favoured a union earned a measure of revenge in a 2008 referendum when the name West Kelowna was chosen for the new municipality, over contenders such as Westbank and Ponderosa Hills, affirming the community’s identification with the larger city across Okanagan Lake.
Findlater, whose generally patrician style was peppered with occasional criticism of government schemes he considered illadvised, was first elected mayor of West Kelowna in 2008. He was re-elected in 2011 and 2014 but he chose not to run for re-election as mayor in 2018, contesting and winning a council seat instead.
He counts building up West Kelowna’s municipal infrastructure and civic programs as among the city’s most significant achievements during his time in office. He’s also proud of his work ethic: “I have missed one council meeting in 15 years.”