The quest for the federal Conservative Party nomination in Kelowna-Lake Country is about to become a two-woman race.
Kelowna city councillor Tracy Gray is expected to announce next week she will seek the nomination.
Earlier this month, Kelowna developer Renee Wasylyk was the first person to announce she would seek the nomination and appears to have the backing of incumbent Conservative MPs Dan Albas (Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola) and Mel Arnold (Vernon-Shuswap), both of whom spoke at her nomination campaign kick-off.
Gray, who has been contemplating a run for the nomination for several weeks, attended the recent Conservative Party convention in Halifax.
A local businesswoman, who has sat on Kelowna city council for four years, Gray is also the chairwoman of the Okanagan Basin Water Board and a city representative on the Central Okanagan Regional District board.
She has scheduled an announcement for next Thursday.
The Kelowna-Lake Country riding has historically been a conservative stronghold, with Ron Cannan holding it for the party from 2006-2015, succeeding Werner Schmidt, who represented the riding on behalf of the Reform Party, the Canadian Alliance and the Conservatives between 1993 and 2006.
Cannan lost the riding 2015 to Liberal Stephen Fuhr. Fuhr was the first Liberal to win the riding in 45 years.
The next federal election is not expected until the fall of 2019.
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