First of three Castanet election forums on Wednesday at Revelry
Cindy White - Sep 15, 2026 / 4:00 am | Story: 631252
Cindy White
Kelowna's Revelry is the setting for a series of forums to help Kelowna voters decide who they will cast ballots for in the upcoming municipal election.
Castanet has teamed up with Revelry and the group ForChange Kelowna to host three events featuring seven council candidates each. The first forum will be Wednesday night, featuring Mohini Singh, Davis Kyle, Tim Down, Indy Dhial, Laura Thurnheer, Bal Grewal and Hamid Khajavi.
The eight member steering committee of ForChange is made up of community leaders with experience ranging from former city manager Ron Mattiussi, to André Blanleil, the owner of Andre’s electronics, to Tony Stewart, former CEO of Quails’ Gate Winery.
The group is helping select who gets invited to the forum stage.
“On ForChangeKelowna.com, there’s a questionnaire that gives people an idea, for absolute transparency, of some of the aspects of what we’re asking councillors,” said ForChange chair Rick Maddison.
“We want to know, do they know about governance? Do they know what issues the city has? Do they know about taxation, fiscal responsibility? What kind of awareness do they have, because ultimately, we’re just trying to pick great leaders.”
Maddison hopes the forums get people more invested in the local election process.
“We have a very low turnout every single time we have a municipal election. We’re trying to change that this year,” he said. “We hope more people come out. We hope more people get informed.
“This forum is a chance for us to really dive deeper into the questions, the issues.”
Questions have been gathered from Castanet’s readership, newsroom and the ForChange committee. Attendees will also be given the chance to submit questions electronically at the event.
Doors open at 6 p.m. and the forum begins at 6:30 p.m. It's free to attend and no tickets are required, but seating is first-come, first-served and space is limited. Afterwards, there will be a chance to meet some of the candidates in a more intimate setting upstairs at Revelry.
The next two forums are scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 24 and Thursday, Oct. 1. Castanet will announce the seven candidates selected for Sept. 24 this Friday.
If you can’t make it to the debates in person, you can still listen in. Castanet will be broadcasting the events live.
By: Castanet; Cindy White
