MP Richard Cannings poses with his bicycle during last year’s Ride the Riding. This year he is doing the trip in reverse, starting in the northwest and finishing in the east. He’s also extended his route to include the Kettle River Valley from Big White through Beaverdell and down to Midway. Cannings uses his eight-day ride to meet constituents, show his support for bicycle trails and get some exercise before returning to Ottawa for its brutal winter season. (Contributed photo)
MP Richard Cannings is spending the next week touring the vast riding of South Okanagan-West Kootenay (SOWK) by bicycle, meeting constituents along the way.
This is the second consecutive year he’s held “Ride the Riding,” cycling from one end of the constituency to the other, mostly on trails following old railway beds.
Cannings, who started out on Tuesday at Glenfir, north of Naramata, said he has three things he wants to accomplish.
“One is obviously to meet with people, especially in small communities, given the chance to sit down and talk over breakfast, coffee or lunch or even riding along on the trail,” he said.
In Osoyoos, for example, he’ll meet people for breakfast at Jojo’s Café on Wednesday, Aug. 23 between 7 and 8 a.m. before cycling along the river channel for coffee at Medici’s in Oliver at 10:30 a.m.
“The second reason is to celebrate all the great trails we have for cycling that are really important for tourism and the economy of a lot of smaller communities,” he added.
“And the third reason is, of course, just to get some exercise, get out in the woods before I have to go back to Ottawa for the winter,” Cannings said.
This year he’s doing the trip in the opposite direction from last year and he’s also adding to the distance he covers, adding a stretch from Big White near Kelowna down the Kettle River Valley through Beaverdell and on to Midway.
“I think it’s going to be around 500 kilometres,” he said. “It’s a little longer than last year because I’ve added this section.”
Last year he did about 435 km of cycling, he said.
He’ll use a vehicle for some connections, such as getting to his starting points and moving quickly between separate events in Midway and Grand Forks that don’t allow enough time to bicycle.
Although he’ll use bike trails whenever possible, there are some stretches – Oliver to Okanagan Falls, for example – where he’ll need to ride the highway.
Cannings strongly supports the railway bed trails and he notes that the Thompson-Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) is concentrating on these trails to promote tourism.
“They looked at places around the world like Europe and parts of the United States and New Zealand especially where old railways have been converted to biking trails,” Cannings said. “They’ve proven very popular and really revived parts of the country where industries left or forestry is in decline and so it’s really boosted those communities.”
The grade on the rail trails is gentle – at most about two per cent – so many people can use them without being a very fit mountain biker, he said.
The scenery is also exceptional.
“We’re really blessed with some of the most spectacular routes in the country,” Cannings said.
The only negative, he added, is that some parts of the trails are better maintained than others and some of the rough spots are less enjoyable for tourists.
“There are a lot of issues to be worked out and each one of them is going to have to be worked out on its own,” said Cannings.
The meet-ups with constituents along the way tend to be social, but Cannings said he’s also willing to stop for a few minutes to talk with constituents about their concerns.
He covers the Okanagan this Wednesday, Aug. 23, then travels eastward in the following days. His final stop is on Wednesday, Aug. 30 at Crescent Valley in the Slocan Valley north of Castlegar.
A full itinerary with meeting locations can be found on Cannings’ website at: richardcannings.ndp.ca.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
