Do endorsements of political candidates by well-known people or former politicians make any difference to how you plan to vote?

Photo: Contributed

Heavy-weight endorsements for candidates in the Kelowna riding are coming in. Christy Clark (L), Gordon Campbell and Jean Chrétien (R).

Two former B.C. premiers and a past prime minister are reaching out to Kelowna voters today, endorsing candidates in what's shaping up to be a very tight race.

Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and former premier Christy Clark threw their support behind Liberal candidate Stephen Fuhr Wednesday while former premier Gordon Campbell endorsed Conservative Tracy Gray on the same day.

These Wednesday endorsements likely reflect how close the race in the newly created riding of Kelowna looks with less than one week before Canada heads to voting stations. According to projections from polling aggregator 338Canada, the two candidates are in a dead heat and the riding is a toss up.

"This is a very important election, we need experience, and that's why I am supporting Stephen Fuhr," Chretien, who was prime minister to 1993 to 2003, said in a message posted online.

"Stephen understands what it takes to protect jobs and to protect our economy and to deliver for Kelowna."

Clark, who was B.C.'s premier from 2011 to 2017, is scheduled to make her support for Fuhr clear at a 3 p.m. press conference, but she's already been going door-to-door drumming up support for area Liberals in the race.

Campbell, B.C.'s premier from 2001 to 2011, expressed his support for Gray, and the Conservative Party as a whole.

"I think (Gray) will be a strong Conservative voice and a strong voice for Kelowna and British Columbia in Ottawa," Campbell said in an interview on Wednesday.

"I found in the past that Conservatives tend to go to Ottawa and tell them what B.C. thinks whereas Liberals go to Ottawa and come back and tell British Columbians what Ottawa thinks — I think we need a strong voice and a Conservative candidate that is willing to start dealing with the real challenges that were left after 10 years of frankly incompetent Liberal government."

The notion that the riding is a toss up is somewhat unique in the history of Kelowna. Elections Canada’s historical data shows that over the last 60-plus years there have been two political shifts away from conservative politics in the Central Okanagan.

The first time Kelowna had a Liberal MP was in 1968 when Kelowna, like the rest of the country, was swept up in "Trudeaumania" and voted in Bruce Howard. Howard was one of the 155 Liberals elected to the House of Commons that year and lost in the following election.

The next time Kelowna voted in a Liberal was when Fuhr was elected in the riding in 2015, as Justin Trudeau's version of "Trudeaumania" swept across the country.

He lost to Gray in the 2019 election.

An estimated 7.3 million Canadians — a record — cast their ballots in advance polls, according to Elections Canada. The non-partisan agency said, based on its preliminary figures, that marks a 25 per cent increase from the 5.8 million electors who voted in advance during the 2021 federal election.

General voting day is Monday.