2005 Candidates (as received from Elections B.C.):
- Sindi Hawkins, BC Liberal Party
- Nicki Hokazono, New Democratic Party of B.C.
- Steve Roebuck, Communist Party of BC
- Paddy Weston, Green Party of BC
District Profile:
This riding is bordered on the west in part by Okanagan Lake, on the north in part by Bernard Avenue and Highway 33, on the east in part by the Kelowna city limits and Pooley Creek, and on the south in part by the edge of Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park. Kelowna itself is the major commercial and services centre. Agriculture is significant, with apple orchards, fruit trees and vineyards. Small manufacturing industries have been established here, producing transportation equipment, machinery and wood products. Summer and winter tourism is also important. At $61,934, the average family income is below the provincial average, while the unemployment rate, at 9.2 per cent, is slightly high. Immigrants comprise 14 per cent of the population; people of German extraction account for 16 per cent. Most notably, one in five people here is over age 65, giving this riding the fifth-highest proportion of seniors in B.C.
Political History:
Liberal Sindi Hawkins, the minister of state for intergovernmental relations, is a two-term incumbent in Kelowna-Mission. In 2001 she beat the NDP's Assunta Rosal by a 5-to-1 margin; in 1996 she had gained office by beating New Democrat Ken Charlish by more than 7,000 votes. Her predecessor was the Social Credit's Cliff Serwa, who was first elected when Kelowna was a two-member riding in 1986 (along with fellow party member Larry Chalmers), and who won again in 1991 when the riding was split in two. For nearly a half-century before 1986 the riding belonged to the Bennett dynasty. The father, W.A.C. Bennett, won 11 elections here with the Social Credit Party between 1941 and '73, serving as premier from 1952-72. He then ceded the seat to son Bill, who became Social Credit leader and served as B.C.'s premier from 1975-86.
In 2001, voter turnout in Kelowna-Mission was 67.6 per cent – somewhat below the provincial average.
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