Conservative voters gathered at Lakewood Park Mall on Saturday to celebrate with Ron Cannan as the incumbent MP for Kelowna-Lake Country kicked off his re-election campaign at his Lake Country campaign office.
Office manager Mel Wilde and Lake Country councilor Noreen Guenther introduced Cannan with speeches paying tribute to Cannan’s past successes in bringing federal investment to local projects such as the Highway 97 realignment between Winfield and Oyama. Friendships were affirmed in the emotional introductory speeches as well.
“I think we could do a poll here around this room and ask people what word first comes to mind when they hear the name Ron Cannan. I think for everyone here the word would be ‘friend’ not ‘member of parliament,’” said Wilde.
Cannan addressed the crowd and expressed gratitude to the constituents for allowing him to represent their community in Ottawa. His speech was light on specific points in the Conservative Party’s campaign platform but he did stress that cutting back government spending to balance the budget within the next four years would be a priority.
He cited an anecdote from the opening of his Kelowna campaign office earlier that morning to illustrate his point.
“In Kelowna this morning a 14 year old girl joined the Conservative Party because she said she was concerned that the government is spending all this money that it doesn’t have. We can’t continue to live above our means,” said Cannan.
He finished his speech by encouraging everyone to get out and vote.
“We’re running this election campaign like we’re down by two votes and every vote counts,” said Cannan.
Constituents can visit the campaign office located in unit 16 in Lakewood Park Mall from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Volunteers are available to provide accurate and up-to-date information on what is going on with the election, and specifically the Conservative campaign, all across the country.