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Kelowna  

Campaign begins for Basran

With the upcoming municipal election a little more than three weeks away, Colin Basran kicked off his re-election campaign Thursday night at Summerhill Winery.

Basran, who served for one term as a Kelowna city councillor before he was elected mayor in 2014, addressed a crowd of about 300 supporters Thursday.

“If you imagine Kelowna as I do, then I humbly ask for your vote of continued confidence on Oct. 20,” Basran told the crowd.

Looking back on his last four years as mayor, Basran says he has many things to be proud of, including the city's economy, it's investments in housing, the opening of the Okanagan Rail Trail and the Journey Home Strategy, a five-year, $47-million plan to address homelessness in the city.

Looking to the future, Basran says there's still lots of work to be done.

“The big ones are homelessness and helping people get off our streets, as well as helping increase the sense of safety for our residents because we know that a number of our community members have said they don't necessarily feel safe in different parts of our community,” he said.

“I want to help make sure that we have available housing and make sure that it's affordable for people in our community. We need to make it easier for people to get around.”

Basran says while council has been working to tackle these issues already, “they can't be solved overnight.”

“We can continue to do what we can to address them and that's what I'd like to do.”

Three others have thrown their hat in the ring against the incumbent mayor on Oct. 20. These include former Kelowna Chamber of Commerce president Tom Dyas, Bakery Boardshop owner Bobby Kennedy and former bylaw officer Bob Schewe.



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