By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: October 17, 2008
The ballot for Vernon’s Nov. 15 election has shrunk slightly. Mike Smith withdrew his nomination papers by last week’s deadline meaning there will now be 13 people vying for six councillors’ seats. They are Buffy Baumbrough, Ray Carling, Steve Debella, Jack Gilroy, Peter Greening, Eric Kowalski, Shawn Lee, Doug MacAulay, Patrick Nicol, Mary-Jo O’Keefe, Brian Quiring, Bob Spiers and Gordon Thomas. Running for mayor are Steve Campbell, Juliette Cunningham, Floyd Edwards, Wayne Lippert, Tony Stamboulieh and Rick Thorburn.
Thorburn will be focused on one issue during the campaign and that is extending the city’s boundaries to include the BX-Swan Lake and BX-Silver Star electoral areas. “I want to consolidate the city,” he said, adding that multiple jurisdictions creates financial inequities. “The city is fixing potholes all the time and how many of those holes are created by BX and Swan Lake residents?” Under a single government, Thorburn says all residents would have a voice at the table. “It will reduce the cost of city management because everyone will be sharing the cost,” he said, adding that it will also cut down on the red tape that businesses must face. “We can’t afford a multiple-headed government. We get a lack of co-operation.” Thorburn believes BX residents could have a referendum on annexation, but says that shouldn’t be the only factor that etermines whether it occurs, pointing out that annexations happened in Kelowna and Kamloops without votes. Thorburn is a 69-year-old architect who was born in Vernon.
Vernonites will have their first chance to hear from the mayoralty and councillor candidates Thursday. A forum will be held by the Sustainable Environment Network Society at the Schubert Centre at 7 p.m. “It will be specifically on the environment and sustainability,” said Julia Lissau, with SENS. Lissau believes that it’s appropriate that a forum deal with the environment. “Every single decision they (council) make needs to take into account the environment and global warming,” she said.
The Vernon Taxpayers Association will hold a forum for councillor candidates Oct. 27 and an event for mayors Nov. 3. Both forums will start at 7 p.m. at the Schubert Centre.
