Fitzpatrick prepares to step aside as senator

By CHUCK POULSEN Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Senator Ross Fitzpatrick will leave office in February after serving 10 years as the Okanagan‘s de facto representative to the federal government. Fitzpatrick will turn 75 in February, the mandatory age for retirement from the Senate. Officially, he has been the senator from B.C., but he had the ear of his friend, former prime minister Jean Chretien, and brought a lot of government funding to this area. During most of that time, Werner Schmidt was the Conservative MP from this area, in opposition and out in the cold. There is a good chance that the next senator won‘t be from the Okanagan. Fitzpatrick says he isn‘t sure how the choosing of his replacement will work, especially if the Conservatives are still in power next year. “The prime minister (Stephen Harper) says he isn‘t going to appoint, although he has made the one appointment from Quebec,” Fitzpatrick said from his office in Ottawa Wednesday. “He‘s in the process of working on Senate reform, and I‘m not sure what‘s going to happen there. The jury is out. There‘s a lot of uncertainty.

It‘s possible there won‘t be a senator from the Interior.” Fitzpatrick said he continues to work on issues for people in this area, but the bigger picture hasn‘t been the same since the Tories formed government. “The honest answer is that that has had an effect,” he said. “But I think I had some influence with the prime minister and cabinet under the previous administration, and that has changed. Obviously, when you‘re with government, you have better opportunities to deliver.” Fitzpatrick said he will continue to develop CedarCreek Winery and Greata Ranch and a recently acquired 35-acre piece of grape-growing property near Osoyoos. “It‘s been a fun 10 years, but I have many other things I‘d still like to do,” he said. “I don‘t know what it will be, but it will be my fourth or fifth career.” He said he will miss his activities as a senator, but not the travel between Kelowna and Ottawa. “What I‘ll miss the most is being able to do something for the community,” he said. “My family has been here for 100 years, and the Valley is very important to me. I want to continue to work on environmental and green, sustainable economic development in the Valley.”

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