Green party fielding 5 of 6

Janmaat, Poon, Truch fill out Central Okanagan ridings to take on full slate of BC Liberal and NDP candidates

With little time to spare, the BC Green Party on Friday filled out a near-complete slate of candidates for the Okanagan Valley.

Ted Shumaker in the Penticton riding was the last to be named by the party.

It’s the first time the retired hospital pharmacist, who worked in Oliver, Summerland and Penticton, which he calls home, has run for public office.

Shumaker said he shares the concerns about government that most people do, but also put his name forward to ensure Green Leader Sonia Furstenau has candidates in as many ridings as possible to head off any attempts to excluder her from debates with the respective heads of the Liberals and NDP.

“She’s a sharp cookie and we need people like her,” Shumaker said of Furstenau.

The Green Party also on Friday provided more information about the trio running in the Kelowna area.

John Janmaat, an associate professor of economics at UBCO, will fly the flag in Kelowna-Lake Country while calling for more sustainability and evidenced-based decision-making by the provincial government.

“Growing up on my family’s farm, my parents set a strong example for me by caring for the land we farmed and giving back to our community. I have long believed that it is my duty to similarly give back to my community and care for our natural environments,” Janmaat said in a press release.

Amanda Poon, an analyst for Interior Health, is running in Kelowna-Mission.

“Our community is struggling with a dual public health emergency — the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing opioid overdose crisis. If we don’t come together soon, we’ll also face the larger challenges of ecological and economic collapse,” she said in the release.

Finally, Peter Truch, a mobility engineer and urban planner, will represent the Greens in Kelowna West, a riding where transportation is a major issue.

“I’m running as a BC Green candidate to fix congestion on Highway 97 in West Kelowna and throughout central Kelowna. Long lines of gridlocked traffic hurts the environment and puts strain on community members’ valuable time,” he said in the release.

Earlier, the Greens announced Keli Westgate as their candidate in Vernon-Monashee, where she picked up 21% of the popular vote en route to a third-place finish in 2017.

Boundary-Similkameen is the only Okanagan riding in which the Greens aren’t fielding a candidate, according to a party spokesperson.

Both the Liberals and NDP have announced full slates for the Valley. There are also Libertarian and independent candidates.

The deadline for candidates to submit paperwork to Elections BC was 1 p.m. Friday.