A former provincial MLA and Powell River resident campaigned for BC Premier Christy Clark in the July 10 Westside-Kelowna by-election during a recent visit.
Judi Tyabji Wilson, who was the MLA for Okanagan East from 1991 to 1996, volunteered to campaign for Clark, who is facing six other candidates. Liberal Ben Stewart vacated the seat to allow Clark to run in a safe riding. While she led the BC Liberals to a majority in the May 14 election, she lost her own seat. Clark is facing NDP candidate Carole Gordon, an elementary school teacher who lost to Stewart in May, as well as candidates for the BC Conservatives, BC Vision Party and four independents.
Tyabji said she participated in an hour-long open line radio show in Kelowna, which she described as lively. “It reminded me a lot of the general election campaign being fought all over again,” she said.
Callers were surprised that she was campaigning for Clark, Tyabji said, even though her husband and former Liberal leader, Gordon Wilson, announced during the campaign that he was “returning home” to the Liberal Party because he supported Clark. “This is the first time, I suppose, that I’ve actually said anything as a former MLA,” Tyabji said. “I’ve certainly been supporting Gordon’s position, but I declined all interviews during the election campaign just because I didn’t want to muddy the message.”
She grew up in Kelowna during the W.A.C. Bennett and Bill Bennett years, Tyabji said, and knows first hand how much Kelowna benefitted from having a premier there. Her father, who is the head of the BC Fruit Growers’ Association, and her son both live in the Westside-Kelowna riding, she added, and Wilson’s Okanagan family also lives in the riding. “We’re very, very connected to that riding,” she said. “Since [Clark’s] become leader, there’s been a dramatically open dialogue under her leadership, very progressive thinking, very much community-based economic development.”
Clark’s approach includes value-added agriculture as a centre point of economic development, Tyabji said, which is how it used to be in the area. Additionally, Tyabji said, her sister is the chair of the BC Wine Institute and has been fighting for a reduction in inter-provincial trade barriers for BC wine. Clark has said she wants to bring down those barriers, Tyabji added. “[Clark] seems to understand that sometimes the biggest barrier to BC business is just red tape.”
Tyabji knocked on doors, including site visits to some of the businesses she knows, as well as doing media interviews. “It’s a very warm reception for the premier, but I guess the biggest commentary that needs to be overcome is that she’s not from there,” she said. “Those of us who are from there can say, ‘Yes, that’s the good news, she’s going to be.’ She loves Kelowna and she’ll fit right in.”
Tyabji said she paid all her own expenses and had a trip set up to go to Kelowna before the by-election location was announced to pick up her granddaughter. “We were there anyway to visit family and we extended our trip by a couple of days, so we could help out,” she said.
If Clark wins, Tyabji said, BC will see some substantial changes that will also be helpful to Powell River. “Non-Metro Vancouver will benefit from this,” she said. “In Powell River, value-added agriculture is where we’re going to see a lot of growth in jobs.”
