Councillor Mike Campol and his family are moving away from Osoyoos this week, after seven years in this community, including four on council. An urbanite “through and through” before he came here, who had never before lived in a small community, Campol spoke candidly about falling in love with Osoyoos, breaking his urban habits and adjusting to small-town living. For the outspoken and opinionated councillor, who hasn’t shied from engaging with residents on social media, it’s had its challenges. Now he wants to step back from the limelight. He’ll continue to serve until his term ends in October. (Richard McGuire photo)

When Mike Campol fell in love with Osoyoos just over seven years ago, he’d never lived in a small community and had never even visited Western Canada.

The experience of moving to an Okanagan town of 5,000 people, and subsequently serving a term on town council, profoundly changed his and his family’s lives.

This week the Campols are moving to West Kelowna, though Campol will continue to serve on town council until his term ends in October.

Until he came to Osoyoos, Campol was an urbanite “through and through.” He lived most of his life in Toronto, but in his final years in Ontario, the family lived in Barrie, a rapidly growing city of close to 150,000 people.

Barrie is in the heart of Ontario’s snowbelt, and Campol admits that one of the things that appealed to him about moving to Osoyoos was being able to sell his snow blower.

“Honestly, that’s a huge thing,” he said. “Every winter at 6 a.m. you’re digging yourself out. The climate was one of the first things that struck me here – the dry air and everything. It just felt better being here.”

And his job dealing with franchise restaurants meant he was constantly fighting traffic-choked highways, driving to communities large and small around Ontario.

Initially, Campol came to Osoyoos in June 2011 on a contract to solve a short-term problem, but he saw it as a way to transition his career into hotel resorts.

“We didn’t wait to the end of the contract,” he recalls. “I fell in love and called my wife and asked her to have my parents look after the kids and to come and see Osoyoos. She felt like I did.”

By late August 2011, Campol, his wife Becky and young children Jacob and Emily had moved to Spirit Ridge.

Only when Campol returned to Barrie for a final cleanup as they sold their house did the magnitude of their life change fully hit him.

“I went into the empty house, into the kids’ bedrooms, and realized what I just did was fairly permanent, huge,” he said. “That was probably my first time truly feeling anxiety.”

The slower pace of life in Osoyoos was something that took time to get used to. Unlike the fierce pace of capitalism in urban Ontario, this was a town where businesses closed early, or even closed for the season.

“It was much more laid back,” he said. “The pace probably was my biggest adjustment… I had a contractor come in and do some work for me and four months later I’m chasing him and going, ‘Can I get a bill?’ People aren’t in this big hurry to do things, get things and get places.”

It took him time to adjust, but now, he says, he looks at tourists and wants to tell them to slow down.

At first the Campols knew virtually no one, but his job in various roles at Spirit Ridge put him in contact with many people in the community.

By 2014, at the urging of former mayor Stu Wells, Campol played a leading role in organizing a five-day music festival called Desert Live.

Later that year, when Campol learned that former councillor Mike Plante wouldn’t be running again, he decided to throw his own hat into the ring. Plante had been the only younger councillor, and Campol saw himself as someone who could represent the demographic of those with young families.

“My only skepticism was four years is a long time,” he said. “Especially when you haven’t done it before and you weren’t aspiring to do it. So you are making that big commitment, but I have zero regrets.”

In those four years, Campol says he’s learned more on multiple subjects than at any time in his life – water, sewer, infrastructure and budgeting on a municipal scale. These skills are transferable to other careers.

Asked about the highlights of his time on council, Campol points immediately to council’s decision to limit cannabis retailing to the private sector, keeping provincial government stores out.

He also points to his role in reversing the previous council’s decision to repurpose the airport land for industrial use. He says the airport should be developed methodically over time, but if the town got rid of it, it would never come back.

And he’s happy that initial steps have been taken toward establishing a regional aquatic centre and pool.

But he has mixed feelings about the issue for which he is often remembered – the fight in 2016 to save Osoyoos Secondary School.

On the one hand, he’s proud of the pressure that local residents, businesses and town council exerted to keep the school open.

“That was a fight I think was ours to lose,” he said. “I think most communities would have lost that fight… I think we sent a message that we’re going to fight for our assets and the things that are important to us in our community.”

At the same time, he admits he isn’t proud of some of his own actions during that fight, in which he heckled members of the school board and used strong language on social media.

“There were a couple of times on social media where I apologized to the community and said that wasn’t my finest moment,” he admits. “I was a little more colourful than I’d like to have seen.”

Indeed, Campol is the only council member to use social media extensively to engage citizens, and his outspoken bluntness over the years has often made him a target.

And sometimes the tone of those disagreeing with him has been harassing and threatening in his view.

“One of the downsides of a small town is there’s a fraction of people that don’t agree with you and make it their mission to discredit you, to insult you and in some cases threaten you,” he says, admitting that a desire for more anonymity is one of the reasons he’s moving.

Campol says he’s often invited those disagreeing with him to sit down over coffee and talk it out, but some people don’t want to do that.

“That’s one of the challenges with social media now is that you never have to look someone in the eye with what you say about them,” he adds.

Campol admits he can be thin-skinned when faced with what he sees as false allegations.

“I got very involved in a short period of time here,” he said. “I put myself out there. I’m not playing victim in any way, but I think I’m ready to just have a job and pick something that I’m passionate about to get involved in on the side.”

To that end, he plans to stay involved with Spirit of the Game, the charity he was involved in starting.

As he looks ahead to his future living in West Kelowna and working for the Penticton Indian Band Development Corporation, he sees a paradox with his time spent in Osoyoos – after living here, any other place is unlikely to match the beauty of this community.

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times

Councillor Mike Campol and his family are moving away from Osoyoos this week, but he’ll continue serving the rest of his term before the October elections. Campol reflects on how much his family loved living in Osoyoos, as well as on some of the challenges he and council faced. (Richard McGuire photo)