ForChange and BRACE for Change get involved in Kelowna city council election

Kelowna   posted Aug 4, 2026 @ 06:00pm by   Steve MacNaull

They both have 'change' in their names.

But, their approaches to the Oct. 17 civic vote for Kelowna city council are vastly different.

ForChange Kelowna will pick what it feels are the eight best candidates for council from a crowd of contenders that is expected to climb to 50.

ForChange will announce publicly by Oct. 2 who the chosen eight are as a way of helping voters decide who to cast their ballots for.

BRACE for Change (standing for Businesses and Residents Against Crime Everywhere) will run a coalition-style slate of four candidates in the election on a platform of safer streets, small business support and council and city hall transparency.

ForChange

ForChange is holding a news conference Wednesday at 9:30 am at Stuart Park to formally announce its formation for the 2026 election and introduce its steering committee members.

The chair of the committee is the owner of Tempest Media -- Rick Maddison.

He's joined on the committee by former City of Kelowna manager Ron Mattuissi, former city councillor and owner of the Andre's Electronics chain of stores Andre Blanleil, former city councillor and arts advocate Ryan Donn, business consultant and coach Alison Yesilcimen, retired City of Kelowna human resources director Charlene Covington, Quails' Gate Winery co-owner Tony Stewart and entrepreneur TJ Grewal (Subway restaurants, oil and gas and biomass).

None of the committee will be running for council.

"Effectively, what we'll do is put every council candidate through an exhausting job interview so we can pick the eight best who will be good leaders and take Kelowna in the right direction," said Maddison.

"We're not running a slate. We're just identifying and publicly recommending the best candidates."

Maddison said the community-led ForChange initiative also wants to make voters aware that municipal politics affect their everyday lives, yet only about one-third of eligible voters actually vote.

So, ForChange wants to get out and vote for a council that will make good decisions that influence housing, transportation, public safety, economic development, infrastructure, financial stewardship and overall quality of life.

ForChange was last called FourChange when it recommended four candidates during the 2011 city council campaign.

At the time, three of its choices were elected -- Colin Basran (who would go on to be mayor in 2014), retired fire chief and 2003 wildfire hero Gerry Zimmermann and Gail Given, the widow of former city councillor Brian Given.

Former Kelowna councillor and former provincial cabinet minister Carol Gran was not elected.

BRACE for Change

This group plans to run four candidates for council under the BRACE banner.

It stresses each candidate is running individually, but under one message and one voter movement.

So far, BRACE has three candidates: JC Rathwell of Empire Business Solutions, who has unsuccessfully run for council twice before; Humberto Morales, a World Financial Group advisor Humberto Morales; and Michael Harris, about whom we haven't been able to find anything.

The banner is looking for a fourth qualified candidate.

Timeline

Over the past few weeks, people have been making their intentions known about running for council and mayor.

However, nomination packages were just made available for potential candidates last week.

Nominations close Sept. 11, a list of candidates with be made public on Sept. 18 and the election for mayor and council is Oct. 17.

People who have already declared their intention to run may not have picked up a nomination package yet.

And, those who have picked up a package may not have made their intentions known yet.

In either scenario, people may never actually submit their application to run or can back out up until 4 pm on Sept. 18.

For mayor

One-term incumbent Mayor Tom Dyas will run again.

Current councillor and former Kelowna-Lake Country Conservative MP Ron Cannan also wants to be mayor.

In April, fashion designer and EMMYDEVEAUX clothing store owner Emily Salsbury announced she intended to run for mayor.

However, she isn't on the list of people who have picked up a nomination package.

For council

Current councillors Charlie Hodge, Luke Stack and Loyal Wooldridge have already announced they won't be seeking reelection.

And, with Ron Cannan running for mayor that means there will be at least four new faces on the eight-person council.

Current councillors Gordon Lovegrove and Rick Webber have announced they'll run again.

Current councillors Maxine DeHart and Mohini Singh haven't made their intentions public yet.

Those that have publicly announced their intention to run for council are the BRACE candidates JC Rathwell, Michael Harris and Humberto Morales and eight others -- Nikki Csek, Davis Kyle, Bal Grewal, Indy Dhial, Lee-Ann Tied, Trevor McAleese, Julia Fraser and Teresa May.

The list so far of additional people who have requested candidate packages only includes the names of those who consented to having their names published.

They are: Crystal Dougan, Bozena Eisenhauer, Cheri Fennell-Saundry, Darrin Fiddler, Daniel Fritter, Richard Gauthier, Valene Johnson, Kevin Jones, Jaymes Kaerne, Hamid Khajavi, Tim Liao, Genevieve McCansh, James Murphy, Braden Rosenfeld, Lana Stachniak and Vlladimir Webb.

Remember, nominations don't close until Sept. 11, so more people will certainly enter the race.

And, even those who have made their intentions known or have picked up a nomination package may end up not following through on running.

By Steve MacNaull

Source: Now Media,

Link: ForChange and BRACE for Change get involved in Kelowna city council election