Incumbent Ousted by Liberal Candidate in Kelowna-Lake Country

For the last nine and a half years residents in the Kelowna-Lake Country riding have been calling Ron Cannan their Member of Parliament, but now that’s about to change.

Liberal candidate Stephen Fuhr beat out Conservative candidate Ron Cannan by 4,102 votes. Cannan spoke to supporters at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel, and said he was defeated because the Green Party votes as well as the NDP votes went to the Liberals. “There’s a message that Prime Minister Stephan Harper I guess served his almost ten years, and the community has spoken. I respect that.”

Cannan says he plans on staying in Kelowna and continuing his life with his family and grandchildren.

39.8 per cent of voters did vote for Cannan, and one voter Jean Mcbride attended the campaign party to show her support. “I think Ron did a great justice to our community and we’re just hoping the next person will carry on, because we have a wonderful region here to work with.”

Mcbride finished by saying she thinks Cannan will be around to give support, and Cannan said he isn’t going anywhere. “There’s so many good things that have happened and I know that there’s more that’s going to happen, and I want to be part of that, however the community calls me to be.”

Cannan had never been part of a political party until he was asked to join the Conservative Party of Canada in 2005, but said you win and lose as a team. “You celebrate as a team in a victory, and you go down as a team. The fact is there’s still some great colleagues that I know that will represent the Conservative Party.”

When asked about the reports of Stephen Harper resigning as the leader of the Conservative Party, Cannan said he hadn’t heard. “I didn’t hear that. Obviously with the majority government there is a convention planned next year in Vancouver so I imagine that will be the focus of convention.”

Norah Mary Bowman received 9,044 votes, Ron Cannan received 25,512, and Stephen Fuhr received 29,614 votes. 72.07 per cent of eligible voters took to the polls on Monday, October 19^th to vote in the Kelowna-Lake Country riding.

To check out the national results, click on the following links:

Outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper's address to the nation;

Incoming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's address;

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's speech.