Donegal Wilson has been elected to serve as the Boundary Similkameen MLA, and Grand Forks Mayor Everett Baker is eager to get the city’s priorities on her radar.
Wilson secured her seat as the region’s Conservative MLA after Saturday’s provincial election. She ran against BC NDP incumbent Roly Russell, Green Party candidate Kevin Eastwood, and Sean Taylor, who ran as an independent.
While Mayor Baker will miss the working relationship he had with former MLA Roly Russell, he’s looking forward to building another with MLA-elect Wilson to ensure the city’s relations are strong with all levels of government.
“We had a great working relationship with the previous MLA, and I would say we had an extraordinary relationship with the NDP government going into the election. But obviously, the citizens of Boundary-Similkameen have spoken and voted for a change, and the role of the mayor is to make sure that the relationships with both levels of government—federal and provincial—are good. We need that relationship to be strong.”
Baker hopes he and MLA Wilson will be able to continue the collaborative work he and former MLA Russell were in the midst of, which includes flood mitigation projects and infrastructure upgrades.
“We’ve accomplished a lot, but we’re not at the end yet. These are ongoing projects that need government grants to help take the burden off taxpayers, so I will continue to bring those forward to both levels of government for our city.”
Although he’s disappointed to lose the working relationship he had built with Roly Russell and the NDP government, Baker says he understands that voters wanted change.
“The majority of the citizens have spoken. I think we can be open to the fact that there has certainly been a blue sweep across the province, for whatever those reasons are. I’m not sure that we will ever understand why things go the way they do. But this is where we’re at.”
There has yet to be an official winner declared provincially, but Baker says he has confidence in both parties and their willingness to help BC communities.
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