Lobby group silent so far

There’s no sign of a political lobby group that exerted significant clout in the past two Kelowna elections reforming before next month’s vote.

Businessman Cal McCarthy, who was involved with FourChange/ForKelowna in 2011 and 2014, said Wednesday he hasn’t heard of anyone trying to revive a similar group this electoral cycle.

“It’s been real quiet,” McCarthy said. “This could just be an old-school election, with individual campaigns.”

With the entry of Tom Dyas into the mayor’s race against incumbent Colin Basran, McCarthy said the race for Kelowna’s top elected job should be particularly interesting.

“With Tom jumping into the race, I think that’s definitely going to put some pressure on the incumbent,” said McCarthy, of SW Event Technology.

In 2011, the pro-business lobby group was known as FourChange, and it targeted four councillors for defeat. All four lost their seats in the biggest shakeup ever of a Kelowna council.

In 2014, the group reformed as ForKelowna. It promoted four candidates, three of whom won election.

New spending limits enacted by the NDP government would greatly restrict the ability of a lobby group like FourChange/ForKelowna in this election.The group spent $30,000 in 2011 and $21,000 in 2014, but the new limit in Kelowna for such third-party lobby groups this election is less than $4,000.