-'Some disgruntlement' noticeable: Slater-

OSOYOOS TIMES-March 11, 2009-

By Paul EverestrnOsoyoos Times

Former Osoyoos mayor John Slater is the British Columbia Liberal Party's new candidate for the Boundary-Similkameen riding in the upcoming provincial election.
Party members picked Slater over former Oliver mayor Ron Hovanes at a March 7 nomination meeting at the Sonora Community Centre.
The nomination came almost four months to the day after members first picked Oliver resident and former rural Area C director Joe Cardoso to represent the party for this electoral district.
Cardoso's candidacy was reviewed almost immediately after the Nov. 8 nomination meeting, however, and despite an appeal from Cardoso, the party announced on Feb. 23 that they had withdrawn their endorsement of him.
In a statement released on March 2, Cardoso said the reason behind the termination of his candidacy was a letter to the editor which appeared in the Oliver Chronicle and the Osoyoos Times in October of 2005 blasting the Liberal Party and Premier Gordon Campbell.
The party has said, however, that Cardoso's failure to disclose information about past opinions in his nomination application was the reason for his candidacy was terminated.
In an interview on March 7, Slater said he did notice some disgruntlement from party members who came out to vote in the second nomination meeting over the handling of the Cardoso fiasco.
He added that the turnout for the meeting was less than it was in November by maybe 200 people.rnA lot of Joe's supporters were sending a message to the B.C. Liberal Party, Slater said.
Party members leaving the nomination meeting on March 7 had mixed reactions to having to choose a candidate a second time.
Frank McLennan and Doreen Gray of Oliver said they were delighted to be voting again as they were very disappointed with the first result.rnThey added the party was right in terminating Cardoso for his statements about the premier.
The opposition will just embarrass everybody, McLennan said.
Harj Dhillon of Oliver said he felt his time was being wasted.
You hope they got it right the first time but obviously they didn't, he said. You're disappointed that you're going through this over and over.rnSlater, who served Osoyoos for two terms as mayor and four terms as councillor over a period of 18 years, said he plans to move forward, however, and he is preparing for the May 12 election with the help of the two other men who had sought the party's candidacy.
I will be working with Ron and Joe to make sure the Liberal Party is well represented in this riding, he said.
Hovanes had shared concerns with the media on March 4 that members of the local Indo-Canadian community may have been upset with him because of actions he took following the first nomination meeting.
Hovanes told reporters that he had learned his choice to engage the local Indo-Canadian community through former Oliver councillor Randy Toor had not sat well as many people felt he should have spoken to the community directly.
He also said he had forwarded a letter to the Liberals in November raising concerns shared with him from the Indo-Canadian community that party memberships were being bought.
Such concerns were retracted due to a lack of evidence after Hovanes had sent the letter and he said there may be hard feelings in the community about his efforts to bring the matter to light.
A meeting with the Indo-Canadian community in Oliver was arranged for the evening of March 4 so that Hovanes could apologize, but no one showed up besides reporters from the Osoyoos Times and the Oliver Chronicle.
On March 9, Hovanes told the Times he didn't gain any votes from November to now and he suspected the grievances of the Indo-Canadian community may have been a reason for his loss.
I suspect that a big part of the Indo-Canadian community that came out on Saturday voted for John, he said.
With nine weeks to the election, Slater said he would be meeting with the party's area association this week to begin putting together a campaign committee and he'll be appealing for volunteers from the Okanagan, Boundary and Similkameen areas of the riding.
We want to make sure all the economies of Keremeos to Christina Lake to Okanagan Falls are taken care of by this government, he said.
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