Dyas proud of campaign despite loss
Mayoral challenger says he expects to remain friends with Basran
The race to become mayor of Kelowna was not as close as Tom Dyas hoped it would be. Dyas finished second behind incumbent Mayor Colin Basran, receiving just under 30 per cent of the votes.
Basran was re-elected with almost 57 per cent of the votes.
“It was not as close as I was hoping for,” Dyas said Saturday night. “I wanted it to be (a) sudden death over-time nail-biter right down to the final last bit, and then we decide on where it goes . . . one vote either way, but I congratulate Colin and his team on successfully getting out and making the contacts that they needed.”
Basran and Dyas had to set aside their friendship to become political rivals.
When asked if the two would remain close, Dyas said he’s competed against friends in business and sports before, and he’s 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’ll 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.”
Dyas said part of running for mayor was wanting to bring forward issues he felt were falling upon deaf ears.
“I know that we were able to bring issues forward that if we did not put our name in this election and we did not decide to get into this race, there is the potential that those issues may never have come forward,” he said. “Those issues that came forward will last long beyond this evening and will be items that will need to be addressed and will have to be continually dealt with in the future.”
Dyas said he wished he had more time to put together his campaign, but praised the amount of work that was done in a five-week time period.
“For what we were able to accomplish in winning the Memorial Cup bid in that three-month period . . . and then going right from that to going to this election and what we were able to accomplish in this election with that short period of time, I don’t have any regrets,” he said. “Obviously I would have liked to win . . . but having more time might have given us that more of a brand name within the community.”
Dyas said he is going to take a couple of weeks to decide if he is going to run for office again.
“There are some different options coming up within the community, so I don’t think we ever say never,” he said. “I am going to take a bit of time to decide and just revisit what’s happened in the last five weeks and catch my breath and see where I’d like to go from there.”