B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan says his party believes it can win Boundary-Similkameen from the B.C. Liberals in the provincial election next May.

That may be why he and his NDP colleagues have been spending lots of time here recently.

Horgan was in Osoyoos on Saturday during a four-day tour of the Okanagan.

He met local residents at Troy’s Grill to discuss education and other issues before touring a vineyard and winery and chatting with vendors at Market on Main.

“I absolutely believe Boundary-Similkameen is a winnable riding,” said Horgan, who believes incumbent MLA Linda Larson has mishandled several important files – education, the national park and her recent comments about the impact of residential schools on First Nations.

Sensing weakness, the NDP has made repeated visits, most recently with Education Critic Rob Fleming visiting Osoyoos and Oliver several times this spring to show support for keeping Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) open.

Horgan said Fleming found Larson’s participation on the education question “to be wanting,” a view he said the Osoyoos community shared.

Larson stayed away from public meetings about the school, insisting she should not interfere in the decision by School District 53 trustees.

Nonetheless, on June 30, the day OSS was scheduled to close, she announced $490,000 in provincial funding to keep the school open under a new Rural Education Enhancement Fund.

But Horgan was especially upset with Larson for asking a First Nations witness at a health committee hearing: “How long do you think before the legacy of those residential schools finally burns itself out of the First Nations people.”

“What really struck me as unconscionable was Linda’s comments about residential schools,” said Horgan. “At a meeting as a representative of the government of British Columbia, her lack of understanding of the consequences to First Nations peoples was really shocking.”

Horgan said that at the time Larson made these comments, he was at a gathering of First Nations elders from across the province in Williams Lake.

“People were horrified,” he said, suggesting that the comments were insensitive and if Larson held such views she should keep them to herself.

Horgan also said Larson “dropped the ball” on the national park issue.

Larson has been a staunch opponent of a national park reserve in the South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen. More recently, her government has indicated it might accept a smaller national park reserve. An announcement is expected in the fall.

“I think the overwhelming sentiment in this community is if we’re going to be a tourism-driven economy with a strong agricultural base, we need to add and complement the attractions that will bring people to the South Okanagan,” said Horgan. “A national park would do just that. I haven’t met too many people that are opposed to it … I think it’s long overdue.”

On education, Horgan told local residents an NDP government would change the formula for funding schools away from one purely based on student bodies to one that reflects the importance of intangibles such as the role of schools in rural communities.

He declined to give specifics, saying that would be announced with the party’s platform during the election.

But before the NDP can think about winning in Boundary-Similkameen, they need a candidate. And that’s unlikely to happen before late fall.

“I’ve been talking to prominent citizens,” said Horgan. “I’ve been talking to prominent members of the NDP and I think we want to get the best candidate possible to represent this area.”

But some of those prominent citizens have rebuffed overtures by Horgan and other NDP MLAs.

Both Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff and former mayor Stu Wells attended the meeting at Troy’s Grill, but both have said they’re not interested in being a candidate, despite being asked.

Allan Patton, a former Rural Oliver director with the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, chatted with Horgan at the market. He’s expressed an interest in running, but so far has stopped short of declaring.

Horgan, however, thinks the new riding boundaries, with the addition of Princeton, will help the NDP.

That community and the Boundary country have traditionally supported his party.

And, as the education issue shows, the governing party can no longer take Osoyoos and Oliver for granted, Horgan said.

The B.C. Liberals have been in power since 2001 and Horgan thinks the public has had enough of them, just as federal voters strongly rejected the Stephen Harper Conservative government in the October 2015 election.

“I think that everything has a shelf life and I think the arrogance of the B.C. Liberals has reached its apex and the public is tired of a government that believes it’s always right,” said Horgan.

The NDP leader said he’s comfortable wading into crowds of people and having conversations about their concerns.

“It’s more important to listen than to talk I think at this stage of the game and that’s what I’ve been doing,” Horgan said. “I’ve been listening to people so that when I put forward my platform in the coming campaign, it will reflect what I’ve heard from people and not what I think is best for them. And that’s the difference between me and (Premier) Christy Clark.”

Horgan said the Clark government believes that after an election it can spend three years of destruction of services to people and then come in for the last 12 months before an election to “sprinkle change.”

On education, he said, the government has been driving people into the private system by “starving public education.”

“You need to reflect the values of the people that elected you and Linda (Larson) has not done that in this riding,” said Horgan. “That’s why I believe that if we work hard and put forward a platform that reflects the values of the people of the South Okanagan, we’ll be successful here.”

Drawing an analogy from the peak of the tree fruit season now underway, Horgan said the riding is “ripe for the picking and we’re going to do our level best to win this seat.”

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times