By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
This year’s municipal election campaign is charging straight out of the gate with familiar incumbents joined by a younger group of political neophytes as Osoyoos grapples with a number of key issues. These include drinking water, access to doctors and a housing crisis.
Nominations closed on Sept. 9 for the election on Oct. 15 with two candidates in Osoyoos running for the position of Mayor, six candidates running for the four Councillor positions and the two water board positions uncontested.
Mayoral incumbent, Sue McKortoff is being challenged in this year’s election by Langley businessman Dustin Sikora who has been living in Osoyoos with his family for over a year.
Running for the Councillor slots are incumbents Myers Bennett and Jim King who each served last term, along with Sy Murseli who is making another run at the position.
Murseli self-describes himself as the “watchdog” over Council and actively follows council meetings, writes letters and provides feedback to town staff and council members alike.
Newcomers, Wes Greve (proprietor of North Basin Brewery), Zachary Poturica (Assistant Store Manager at AG Foods), and Johnny Cheong (Chiropractor and co-owner of Sunshine Valley Family Chiropractic). Amanda Hilario submitted her nomination papers but then subsequently withdrew them on Sept. 12.
With a party name – Osoyoos First – website and coordinated fundraising and messaging, the grouping of Sikora, Greve, Cheong and Poturica (and Hilario before she withdrew) appear to have brought the “party slate” concept to small town Osoyoos.
“I wouldn’t call it a slate and we’re not an electoral organization,” Sikora said, speaking to the Times-Chronicle at the close of nominations on Sept. 9.
He also underscored that all the candidates under the Osoyoos First banner are “all individual people, we all have very different, diverse thoughts and diverse backgrounds. Our real only common thread… is that we’re all fresh options.”
There is also a common thread in the form of an “adviser” of sorts, in one Eileen McGinn who Times Chronicle understands was key in match-making the Osoyoos First candidates and sharpening their talking points.
Sikora added that if any other newcomer to Osoyoos’ municipal election he would be happy to include them on the website too.
Slate or no slate, undoubtedly the much larger wrinkle that Sikora and his running mates will need to iron out is Sikora’s connection to the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ in Ottawa earlier this year.
According to widely published media reports, Sikora was a major financial contributor to the Freedom Convoy to the tune of some $23,000.
“At this point I think the topic is kind of pasé there are some things about the movement you’re always going to get some salty characters in any large group of people that are looking to do something, but at this point it’s not a municipal issue, it’s not a regional issue those were kind of more federal issues,” he said.
As to whether Sikora’s support for the “freedom convoy” is shared by the others on the slate, neither Greve or Poturica who were both present during the interview had anything to say on the matter.
“I can’t speak for anybody else and again we’ve got a diverse range of opinions and characters here where you can’t paint us all with one brush on anything,” Sikora offered.
When asked whether he was anti-vaccine and/or anti-health restrictions he replied: “No I’m not anti-anything. I’m not 100 per cent for, or against anything, everything needs to be treated case-by-case.”
For Sikora the issue is in the past. “I think people are looking forward to getting past that. I think all that kind of stuff is misdirection about what we need to talk about.”
Mayor Sue McKortoff said she was “a little bit concerned” when she learned of Sikora’s connection with the convoy movement.
“I didn’t support it and we had quite a few concerns about it when it was happening in town and certainly down at the border, that was a concern.
“I am quite vocal that I didn’t support it, I support the science and health regulations and that was what I had to do as a Mayor,” she said. “I don’t know what to think, I’m sure he has some followers that think maybe somebody new should be in the Mayor’s chair, I’m not exactly sure what his reasons are.”
For Sikora the answer is simple. “I’m just looking at the declining standards of service we’re getting. I think it’s time for a fresh slate of options.”
“Some of the people we’ve attracted here are very accomplished and we want to fix the obvious ones,” which he says includes drinking water, sewage processing, failing infrastructure, and dilapidated buildings.
“All that kind of stuff that takes time to neglect and then we arrive at this point. We’ve got some incumbents who want to go for a third or fourth term, it’s just time for some new people to step up and serve the team,” he said.
He’s not phased by the lack of governance experience by members of the slate. “Nobody here has been elected before but I actually think we’re more experienced than the incumbents. When you look at our personal achievements with a doctor, we’ve got entrepreneurs, we have someone who’s probably put in more hours volunteering for campaigns over the years that our current council has probably sat in their official capacity.
“We’ve got zero hours logged for being elected officials, but I think individually and collectively our experience far exceeds the options,” he added.
Experience is something very much on top of mind for McKortoff. In fact she raised the issue with Sikora when he came to inform her some weeks ago that he was planning on running. And she gave him one piece of advice: “Usually I would recommend that people run for council first before they run for mayor,” she said. “He has decided that he doesn’t want to do that so that’s fine, it’s a democracy.”
And as to why she thinks she’s the best choice for Mayor, McKortoff sighted the fact she has lived in Osoyoos for a long time and has the background on what’s happened in the past which helps put perspective on the issues going forward.
“I don’t think someone who is really new to the area would have the same perspective. I’m eager to continue on things I’ve been really working on,” she said. This includes the Okangan Basin Water Board, town drinking water, housing issues and of course the doctor crisis.
McKortoff along with Councilors Jim King and Myers Bennett as well as Rod Risling, the new Chief Administrative Officer for the town will be in Whistler for the annual Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) meetings. She highlights that a meeting has been secured with the Minister of Health, Adrian Dix along with MLA Rolly Russell to discuss possible solutions to the doctor crisis in Osoyoos.
As for the tap water situation, McKortoff says it hasn’t been a lack of trying. “Public works staff have been dealing with things sometimes eight hours a day. They flush out the system they’ve been dealing with people in their homes. We know it’s not an easy fix but it will take some time to go through the whole system and flush things out,” she said.
Part of the problem, she says, was because all of the town’s wells were in operation this summer. “And as everyone knows we need a new water purification system and as everyone knows it’s a big issue.”
She adds that the assets the town has above ground – the sidewalks, the street lights, the hanging baskets are easy to see. “It’s the ones underground that we don’t see and its crucial to make sure we keep up-to-date on those and they all take time and money. So it’s not an easy fix.”
Sikora says they will be bringing “experts” to town at the end of the month where the slate will unveil their plans for unlocking asset value in town through the application of technology to the Osoyoos water problem. Beyond that, they are coy on details for now.
At the very least Sikora hopes the new options he and his running mates are offering will help get Osoyoos residents engaged and out to vote. “Historically [there has been] such low voter turnout I don’t know, maybe that’s a reflection of just the lack of options there’s been during the last couple of elections.”
“Having some new vibrancy and the ideas that we’re bringing and the experts that we’re bringing I think when people catch wind of them I would imagine that voting turnout is going to go up in double digits,” he said.
He added this would be “a great thing. . . getting people mobilized and out and excited for something. Regardless of the way it goes, if we can increase voter turnout that’s a win for everybody.”
For McKortoff: “I’m hoping it is a calm election and that people are kind and that people actually ask questions and make informed, appropriate decisions.”
