2005 Candidates (as received from Elections B.C.):
- Bill Barisoff, BC Liberal Party
- James Patrick Cunningham, Green Party of BC
- Garry Litke, New Democratic Party of B.C.
Districts Profile:
This riding, located in south-central B.C., abuts the U.S. border and stretches north to Okanagan Mountain Park and west to Apex Mountain Provincial Park. Penticton, in the central part of riding, is the commercial and population centre. The riding has an extensive agricultural base, with lots of orchards, canneries and wineries. There's also some forestry, and tourism is important throughout the riding. Overall, retail trade and health and social services are the top employers. Unemployment is at a fairly high 10 per cent, while the average family income is just $51,266 – the province's seventh-lowest. Most notably, a quarter of the people here are over 65 – B.C.'s highest such proportion. At 56,372, this riding is the province's 10th most populous.
Political History:
The incumbent in Penticton-Okanagan Valley is Liberal Bill Barisoff, the minister of water, land and air protection. In 2001 he received four times the votes of the second-place finisher, Naga Terada of the NDP. In the 1990s most of the voters here were divided between Okanagan-Penticton and Okanagan-Boundary. It was in the latter that Barisoff was first elected, unseating then-incumbent Bill Barlee, a New Democrat, by just 27 votes in 1996. Barlee had served since a 1988 byelection; his wins, over two Socred members, were by decisive margins. Meanwhile, Okanagan-Penticton was represented from 1991-96 by New Democrat Jim Beattie, who was then ousted by Liberal Rick Thorpe. From the 1950s until the late 80s this region was a Social Credit stronghold, dominated by MLAs Francis Richter (1953-75), Jim Hewitt (1975-88) and Ivan Messmer (1986-91).
In 2001, the voter turnout in Penticton-Okanagan Valley was 68.2 per cent – somewhat below the provincial average.
Main > Districts 
