'All hands on deck' moment brings Fuhr back to politics in Kelowna

Fuhr back in politics

Photo: Stephen Fuhr

FILE- Stephen Fuhr

Former MP and fighter pilot Stephen Fuhr will be running for the Liberal party in the next federal election.

"It’s an all hands on deck moment for the country. I would like to serve my community and country again and I think Mark Carney is uniquely qualified for the moment," Fuhr said.

"The stakes are high and I can’t think of a better time to get involved."

Fuhr has his sights set on the newly drawn Kelowna riding.

It’s not uncharted territory. He handily won a seat in the riding that was once Kelowna Lake Country in 2015, then lost to Conservative MP Tracy Gray in the subsequent election. Gray has held the riding ever since.

When the election is called, they will be up for a rematch.

Liberals don’t have much strength in this part of the country, historically.

Fuhr was the only Liberal elected to a Kelowna riding for 50 years. Prior to that was in 1968, when Liberal candidate Bruce Howard was swept up in the first wave of Trudeaumania. He, like Fuhr, lost the follow-up election when the prime minister fell out of favour with western voters.

Regardless of the party's fraught history in the Okanagan, others are also lining up for the Liberal Party.

The candidate for Okanagan Lake West - South Kelowna will be Juliette Sicotte. In a biography distributed to media on Thursday, Sicotte said she’s lived in Kelowna 30 years, and protecting ‘Made in Canada’ progress has prompted her to run.

She will be up against Conservative MP Dan Albas, who was elected in the riding currently named Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola in the 2011.

To the north, in the newly formed Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee riding, former Vernon city councillor Scott Anderson was selected as the candidate for the Conservatives. The NDP candidate will be Leah Main and the Green candidate will be Blair Visscher.

While some may say otherwise, the ridings are not set in stone nor is the election.

Before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation many polls at the start of the year showed the Liberals behind the Conservatives by more than 20 points.

That's changing.

New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds the governing Liberal Party – led by newly sworn-in Prime Minister Mark Carney – surging to a five-point voter intention advantage nationally after trailing by 29 points in late December.