Federal election: Cranbrook’s Wayne Stetski announces NDP candidacy for Kootenay–Columbia

Cranbrook politician Wayne Stetski has announced his candidacy for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the federal riding of Kootenay–Columbia. The official announcement came March 4.

Stetski served as Mayor of Cranbrook from 2011–2014 and was upset in by Lee Pratt in the November 2014 municipal election.

In a media release announcing his candidacy, Stetski went on the attack against Kootenay–Columbia incumbent Conservative MP David Wilks.

“Since his election in 2011, David Wilks has been heard saying he is not allowed to vote the way his constituents want him to in parliament. He can only vote the way Stephen Harper tells him to, even when his constituents tell him that they strongly disagree,” Stetski said in a statement. “Democracy is poorly served by silencing a whole region in this way. The people of Kootenay–Columbia deserve better.”

Before serving as mayor, Stetski worked his way through numerous government administration positions. He served as a manager for BC Parks from the early 1980s to 2002. He then moved to the B.C. Ministry of Environment where he worked as Kootenay Regional Manager from 2002–2009. He was manager of the East Kootenay Conservation Program from 2009–2011, before taking on the job as mayor in Cranbrook.

Stetski has resided in Cranbrook for 25 years and studied ecology at university. He’s been involved in a long list of community organizations, including with Key City Theatre, Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook, Cranbrook minor sports organizations, and many more.

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“I’m looking forward to a great campaign. It is clear that if we want to defeat the Conservatives in this area we will all need to work together to elect an NDP MP,” Stetski said. “I’ll be travelling throughout this area meeting with people across the riding right through until Election Day. I’m looking forward to getting reacquainted with old friends and making a whole bunch of new ones.”

Stetski faces an uphill battle with a twist.

MP David Wilks earned 56 per cent of the vote in the 2011 election, in a riding with political climate dominated by very conservative East Kootenay politics.
However, the 2012 Canadian federal electoral redistribution has altered the riding somewhat. The Kootenay–Columbia riding picked up the communities of Salmo and Kaslo, and the City of Nelson, which are traditional NDP bases. At the same time, the hamlets of Nakusp and Needles were redistributed to the new districts of South Okanagan–West Kootenay and North Okanagan–Shuswap respectively.

The addition of the West Kootenay NDP territory to the Kootenay–Columbia riding will enliven a race that has seen Conservative, Alliance and Reform candidates jog around the bases for 20 years.

What will the impact of the three West Kootenay towns — combined population about 13,000 plus rural areas — in a riding that had 88,026 residents in 2011 according to Statistics Canada?

Although the Revelstoke Mountaineer doesn’t currently have access to polling, the words of BC Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko (NDP) speak to that party’s feeling on the annexation of the West Kootenay enclave into the East Kootenay. In 2012, Atamanenko protested the cleaving of Kaslo, Salmo and Nelson from his riding, and urged followers to protest proposed changes in submissions to a federal boundary commission draft report.
Although Atamanenko put forward solid geography-based arguments, it appears that politically the NDP feel the boundary change will be a loss for them.

The Greens beat the federal Liberals for third place in the past two federal elections, but both parties remain a distant third in Kootenay–Columbia.

In his opening statements, Stetski keyed on a non-partisan issue that resonates with voters here, saying he’s the one who’ll represent Kootenay–Columbia interests in Ottawa.

“There is only one person in parliament whose job it is to represent the people of Kootenay–Columbia. I’m going to be that strong voice in Ottawa,” Stetski said.

He attacked the incumbent on a May, 2012 controversy surrounding MP David Wilks.

While on a visit to Revelstoke, Wilks met with a group of constituents and local media. He made statements to the effect that he was a backbencher with no power to act against a controversial omnibus budget bill moving through parliament at the time. His comments were recorded and got the national spotlight for several days, including a discussion on CBC’s The National At Issue panel, and the ire of prominent national columnists who derided his capitulation.

Wilks soon recanted his recalcitrant meanderings and reaffirmed his vows to the prime minister in a public statement.

Stetski will likely press on the issue this campaign.

More recently, MP Wilks visited Revelstoke in February, where he publicly declared he’s asked for $5 billion in funding for the Trans-Canada Highway in Mount Revelstoke, Glacier and Yoho National Parks. Wilks said his funding request is focused on federal portions of the highway in the parks.

With the federal budget due in April, this is a key issue for the northern end of the Kootenay–Columbia riding, and the decision by Finance Minister Joe Oliver will likely impact the election.

The Revelstoke Mountaineer has since contacted Parks Canada with requests for information on capital planning for highways in the three national parks. Our media request for information was largely sidestepped by Parks Canada, but we’ll endeavor to keep on this key issue in the riding when the federal budget is released.

A statement by the NDP Kootenay–Columbia riding association said Stetski will be affirmed at a Mar. 15 ceremony in Cranbrook.

The federal election tentatively scheduled for October 19, 2015, but could be called earlier.

For more on Wayne Stetski, listen to our SoundCloud interview with the NDP candidate embedded above in this story, including a discussion of Revelstoke issues.

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