Kelowna Candidate Questionnaire | Glendon Smedley for Mayor

KelownaNow reached out to all mayoral, council and school trustee candidates running in Kelowna’s and West Kelowna’s 2014 Civic Election and asked them questions submitted by you, the reader.

Responses of those who chose to participate will be posted between November 3rd and November 14th in a randomly selected order.

Glendon Smedley - Kelowna Mayoral Candidate

1. What career experience do you have to be Mayor of Kelowna? Please provide a specific example of a decision you made that affected the community.

I started working at a young age cutting lawns for seniors, I worked my way up to become a Technical Sales Representative for Industrial products across western Canada. I then moved into becoming a prototype Designer and draftsman for medical equipment. I also worked as acoordinator of service persons for restaurant equipment. There other jobs I took on like

looking after affordable housing as a Caretaker/Property manager and working as a Red Seal Journeyman Carpenter. I found my Career experiences to be very challenging and rewarding because of the great relationships I had made with my fellow co-workers, bosses, people I have served and met along the way.

The decision I made that impacted the community was that as a Journeyman Carpenter, I helped build the bridge that we all enjoy driving today. I look forward to building skytran the efficient advance transportation system to fulfill the needs of the community.

2. There are so many buildings sitting empty along Bernard Avenue in downtown Kelowna, what are you going to do to attract businesses to the core and help them survive?

To turn the existing buildings into affordable housing or rental housing, to cater to the tourist economy as well as loading areas for people to access skytran transportation interconnecting the downtown core to our malls, to the hospital, to nursing homes, to parks, to recreation centres.

Skytran will definitely attract businesses and would be an efficient transportation that can help economic sustainability of our beautiful city of Kelowna. This will enhance the economy as it will attract a multicultural society of tourists and local people from far and away.

Skytran itself would be an integral part of the heritage and culture of Kelowna. It would connect people to different places. you could park and ride, text and ride safely. Emergency response would be faster and traffic flow would be improved with Skytran. Wait times at bus stops would be reduced. Bus tours could take place with less traffic on the roads, less congestion. It would create more jobs and opportunities from the time it begins to be built as well as after it is built well into the future, creating Economic Sustainability.

3. There’s a lot of emphasis on downtown development, but what about the other town centres. What’s your plan to have business thrive throughout Kelowna?

Interconnect the other town centres with the the downtown area with skytran.

To have businesses thrive throughout Kelowna, first we think of how the consumers manage their time in a day. Each day has delays and if you add the delays together for each person, you will find there is alot of time wasted in a day. If you introduce a Skytran system, you can reduce those delays. A person could drive there kids to school then go to a nearby Skytran system and board the pod where the person could be off visiting there mother in a nursing home, visit there friend in a hospital, go to the gym (could be texting and talking on the phone safely) and go for coffee downtown, go shopping at a mall of there choice, then travel back to there car at the parking lot and go pick up the kids after school. Skytran is fast, no traffic, accessible, interconnected to different locations of businesses and services that will not be a burden and not time consuming.

4. What do you think about Kelowna’s current road system and what needs to be improved in the short term?

The current bridge connecting Kelowna to west Kelowna created a better link than what we had before in the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's less congested and improves the flow of traffic. Maintaining the existing roads by fixing potholes in the short term would be an improvement however we have to look at something other than band-aid solutions.

Photo Credit: KelownaNow

5. What improvements, if any, do you feel need to be made to Highway 97?

Cooper Road and Dilworth Road needs a left hand turn signal. Rutland road and Rieds corner, Sexsmith needs rerouting.HOV lanes need to be removed for much easier flow of traffic.

6. How will you engage the youth vote in Kelowna?

I would encourage the youth by letting them know how important their vote is for cleaner air, time efficient transportation and will help the economic sustainability of Kelowna. The introduction of Skytran would help the student to get by to and from where they like to go efficiently and timely and in turn, they can have more time for other things. Interconnecting skytran to schools and universities would take them to places timely and safely while allowing tem more time for studying or do any extracurricular activities.

7. How can you make Kelowna more financially viable for young adults and families?

Introduce more jobs through the development of businesses and introducing skytran to Kelowna. if we get the Skytran early, the potential for manufacturing plant is there than if we wait, It will help in job creation.

8. What are you going to do to encourage more affordable housing and less luxury living in Kelowna?

Introduce affordable and/or affordable living downtown with the introduction of Skytran and the fixing of existing buildings and the ones with heritage value. The more people we attract to the beauty an efficiency of transportation of the city, more people would be interested to stay and occupancy will increase.

9. Where are our alternative modes of transportation going in the future years to come?

Electric cars and Skytran modes of transportation would be ideal as up and coming modes of transportation. Efficient, fast and safe transportation to have in the future years to come.

10. What would be your number one priority for the next four years as Mayor of Kelowna?

I am a strong believer of a team that has cohesion, stability, cooperative values. Collaborating with the Kelowna City Council, I would look to the " immediate needs of our community" like building affordable housing for single parents; assisted living for senior so there will be less waiting time for occupancy; creating shelters in Rutland are for homeless people and upgrading the Gospel mission. Increase funding for Seniors program and services so that low income Seniors can choose to live in luxury living without worrying for as we know Seniors helped shape Canada into what it is now. Increasing funding for food banks to people who have disability or unable to work. Increase the mobility of people in our community by keeping the Recreational centres affordable and maintaining the programs included in their membership like for example swimming lessons, dance lessons, aquafit etc. Maintaining and creating new parks for everyone to enjoy living here in our beautiful city of Kelowna.

The civic election is Saturday November 15th, 2014.

For the most up to date and current information, visit our 2014 Civic Election Page.

For current information on candidates running in your community, visit the following sites:

Kelowna Votes, West Kelowna Votes, Lake Country Votes, or Peachland Votes.