Loyal Wooldridge hopes to go from city councillor to NDP MLA for Kelowna Centre

Over the next few weeks, Castanet News will feature each of the candidates seeking your vote in each of the four Central Okanagan ridings ahead of the Oct. 19 provincial election.

Today, we focus on BCNDP candidate Loyal Wooldridge, who is running in the Kelowna Centre riding.

For the past six years, Loyal Wooldridge has occupied a seat on Kelowna city council.

He hopes to take that knowledge and experience to Victoria as the first ever NDP MLA from the City of Kelowna.

“I’ve been doing the work on council the last two terms with the intention to eventually run provincially, to really understand our city from a grass roots level,” Wooldridge told Castanet News during a one-on-one interview.

“I know our challenges, but I also know the solutions to overcome them. And, regardless of party, it’s about choosing the person that knows our city best, that lives here, that does the work and can get to work on day one to advocate for Kelowna.”

Why NDP?

It’s not news to me the BC NDP has not won here in Kelowna before. But, at the end of the day, I chose a party I felt could best deliver the results for people in Kelowna.

“Having worked alongside this government for the last six years, they have invested here, they have collaborated with the City of Kelowna, not because this is a stronghold but because it’s the right thing to do. That speaks to the integrity of the party.

“For me, it’s aligning with the values of taking care of people. While the right wings are over there fighting amongst themselves trying to figure out who they are, we are busy getting to work for people.”

Deteriorating Health Care and Attainable Housing

“Frankly, we inherited a really sick patient from the BC Liberals. We had a previous government that cut ministries by 15 per cent across the board and left this government with a mess to mop up. They also had a pandemic to deal with that also impacted our health care system immensely.

“Housing, we saw government exit the housing business for about two decades. That has massive impacts when we have Gen Zeds that are coming up with a huge population that’s going to rely on more housing and baby boomers needing more health care.

“We have a lot of impacts that have brought us to this point, but it should be no surprise from John Rustad who sat in government and chose not to make decisions to invest in the future.

“We acknowledge there is more work to do and it’s going to take investment and it’s going to take time.”

Solutions

“I think it’s imperative we collaborate with local government, that’s why I started at the City of Kelowna to really understand what our city needs and what the plans are. The last thing we need is someone swooping in and telling us what we are going to have.

“We saw that recently with the second crossing being promised. That’s not even part of the plans in Kelowna. Anyone that has sat through a council meeting in Kelowna would know the majority of people crossing the bridge into Kelowna are coming to Kelowna.

“A bypass isn’t going to solve the congestion issues in Kelowna.”

Crime

“Obviously, safe communities are one of the top priorities I hear on the doorsteps. People should feel safe in our community and that’s what we need to work towards.

“David Eby launched the repeat violent offender initiative and through that, we have about 40 individuals that are currently being held accountable and we have seen major crime reduced up to 40 per cent.

“Now, we are going to start addressing the non-violent offenders and we saw that with our announcement of involuntary care to make sure we have care for people that can’t make decisions on their own.”

Decriminalization

(Decriminalization) was a recommendation that was forwarded from government. We took the feedback from local governments including our mayor here in Kelowna that said it wasn’t working. We took the advice of police chiefs that said this isn’t working and we adjusted our sails and returned to not decriminalizing drugs.

“I think that was the right decision.”

You can hear the complete interview in the player above.