19-year-old wins Kelowna council seat
Last Updated: Monday, November 30, 2009 | 11:15 AM PT
The Canadian Press
High school graduate Kevin Craig has become the youngest person in Kelowna, B.C., history to win a seat on city council after a close election on Saturday.
It was the second run for council for the 19-year-old graduate of Okanagan Mission Secondary, after he failed to win a seat by 39 votes during the 2008 civic election.
"I realized then that every single vote counts," he said in a telephone interview Saturday night, the sounds of a boisterous party at Manteo Resort in the background.
"You have to work as hard as humanly possible to make sure you get every supporter out to the polls, and that's exactly what I did today. We door-knocked for 10 hours. I know it was that kind of work that got us the votes," he said.
Craig was neck and neck with chartered accountant Todd Sanderson as the results of 13 polls came in. He was behind by about 50 votes at one point, but rallied to beat Sanderson 2,863 votes to 2,427.
Ready for budget debate
In preparation for his run for council, Craig attended two years' worth of council meetings, which he said has primed him for the coming 2010 budget debate.
"There's two weeks before I'm sworn in, and it's either the same day or the day after that council starts its budget hearings," he said.
"I need to get to work on that to make sure that we can prepare a reasonable budget to prepare us for the challenges that lie ahead," he said.
"Also, I'm looking forward to continuing the process of the [official community plan] review. That will be a valuable tool for planning our future development."
Mayor Sharon Shepherd applauded Craig's hard work during the byelection campaign to replace the late Brian Given, who died in August.
"I'm very proud of him. He knows what it is all about. I think he's going to come very well prepared," she said.
Voter turnout was 11 per cent compared to 19.6 per cent during the 2008 civic election, which was significantly down from the 31.5 per cent in 2005.
