Why I'm voting for Walter Gray

[rustan8]

It is my sincere hope that all Kelowna residents take time on November 19th to help our community flourish by voting Walter Gray for Mayor.

Walter cares about the success of those starting out in our community. I will never forget how he offered mentorship to me when I began my career in the financial industry at the age of 24. He was Mayor of Kelowna then and unbelievably busy yet when I contacted him, he not only met with me but from that point on continued to encourage me on my career path.
Walter Gray is an unwavering supporter of service groups in our community. When I along with 4 other young businesswomen set out to form the Okanagan Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) – a leadership development organization for women 18 – 40, we faced may hurdles to get off the ground. From the beginning, Walter was our greatest champion bringing attention to our fledgling organization when we needed it most. We owe our success in those critical early years to his unwavering support.

Walter is a true supporter of charitable initiatives in our community – in my current career I work with many non-profits and have seen how Walter is both a caring and compassionate leader who tirelessly supports many charities. An example being the very successful capital campaign he led for Kelowna's Hospice – it's through initiatives like this that Walter continues to work tirelessly to make our community better for all.

I value that Walter does not cater to special interest groups - instead he thoughtfully and holistically listens to all positions making his decision based on what is best for a sustainable community and he uses his consensus building skills to bring together people from all backgrounds in the process. I also love that he embraces diversity in his family and welcomes all into his home. Finally, Walter Gray has the vision for building a community that is vibrant, thriving and one where families from all backgrounds may succeed for generations to come.

-Nicole Rustad

[Homeownertoo]

Thanks for that thoughtful view.

[grammafreddy]

Well, Nicole. I am NOT voting for your hero, Walter Gray.

And I am also not supporting your cause and rally for the old CD21 plan, either.

But, tell me, how is Walter Gray going to improve downtown? He couldn't do it during the boom years when zoning allowed for 20-storey buildings everywhere down there, so what makes him think he and his little band of henchmen will accomplish anything now? How are they planning to screw the small landowners this time in order to choke them out and allow the developers to grab their building lots to build their towers?

Is your lawyer husband (whose office is down there) involved in FourChange's fairy tale vision of grandeur while they also overlook the real story of what's been happening downtown in the past while Mr Gray was mayor?

[EdCase]

First let me say that I completely agree with your comments about Walter's dedication to this city: I have personal reasons to be forever grateful for his fundraising efforts on behalf of Hospice House. At this stage in his life, I believe that this kind of activity is where he should focus his efforts; not a return to a job where he performed badly.

First, as a member of Kelowna's business community I was appalled by his lack of understanding and empathy for economic development is this city. He was mayor during an unprecedented boom in real estate speculation which masked the underlying problem - declining high value jobs - in our local economy. For many years we have spent under half the amount per capita on economic development compared to places like Chilliwack and Abbotsford. Before I hear the cry, "Government doesn't create job, business does", absolutely but when you look at areas like Ottawa, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Boston and Silicon Valley you see a very integrated approach to economic development between governments, business, colleges and the community. As a member of the business community, Walter should have understood this - he was certainly told - but his focus remained on real estate speculation and the McJob economy.

Second, I did not like his approach to CD21 and the Simpson Covenant which I found patronizing and sometimes arrogant. There was a flash of this again the other night when he reacted to the current Mayor's question on the OCP in a very flippant and dismissive manner. The truth was he hadn't read it: as a candidate for Mayor, surely he should be intimately familiar with it and dismissing it as too thick to read isn't acceptable.

Third, as a senior citizen, I was unhappy to see he was a no-show at the SLR Forum last night. I understand there was a prior engagement but, with the high number of seniors in this city and the important issues we face, I really felt this should have been his first priority.

The 'three strikes' rule also applies in politics.

[Pookybear]

Well, Nicole. I am NOT voting for your hero, Walter Gray.

And I am also not supporting your cause and rally for the old CD21 plan, either.

But, tell me, how is Walter Gray going to improve downtown? He couldn't do it during the boom years when zoning allowed for 20-storey buildings everywhere down there, so what makes him think he and his little band of henchmen will accomplish anything now? How are they planning to screw the small landowners this time in order to choke them out and allow the developers to grab their building lots to build their towers?

Is your lawyer husband (whose office is down there) involved in FourChange's fairy tale vision of grandeur while they also overlook the real story of what's been happening downtown in the past while Mr Gray was mayor?

Well said Gramma. I remember this lady on the news as a big supporter of CD21. Her love fest with Gray is too much.

[beachday]

[beachday]

Thanks for sharing Nicole, I am with you 100% with a vote for Walter Gray! I have been reading the election forums since they began posting and thought I would finally share where my vote is going!

-Dawn Ryan

[grammafreddy]

Thanks for sharing Nicole, I am with you 100% with a vote for Walter Gray! I have been reading the election forums since they began posting and thought I would finally share where my vote is going!

-Dawn Ryan

Sure .. and how much do you think he is going to be able to accomplish with his now dead CD21? When will he start building high rise towers 20+ storeys tall? Where will he put them? Who is he screwing to do it? The small landowners would probably like a heads-up so they can get their legal counsel hired. (hopefully not Nicole's husband)

I'll say it again (and again and again) ... until the small landowners are ready and willing to sell out to the big developers, nothing will be done on Lawrence and Leon. There will be no towers built in the downtown core until then - unless Gray gets elected and steals the land from them by expropriation. Sharon's council has said they will not even consider expropriating the land. The developers will have to wait or change their plans.

[normaM]

I'm voting for Gray because he isn't Sharon.

[Black Daisies]

Here's an exerpt from the following article in Walter Gray's own words.....

http://canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin ... 0/simayors

• BC Christian News • MAY ISSUE 2000 • VOL. 20 #5 • Formerly "Christian Info News" •

Interior mayors stand firm on 'gay pride' issue
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By John Keery

TWO Okanagan mayors who have been brought before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal for refusing endorse gay pride parades remain adamant they will not recant.

Linda Larson

Oliver mayor Linda Larson said she and her council have developed a policy which allows them to handle requests for proclamations and determine which ones they will allow.

"We will do [proclaim] anything that encompasses and benefits the whole community," she said. "We don't do proclamations that involve race, religion or sexual orientation.

"Till hell freezes over I am not going to budge," Larson added. She and her town are scheduled to go before the tribunal -- which despite the name is just one person -- in July to answer for refusing to proclaim Gay and Lesbian Pride Day in 1998.

Meanwhile, Kelowna mayor Walter Gray hopes a March 21 tribunal ruling, essentially slapping him on the wrist and telling him not to do it again, will end his three-year ordeal in the clutches of the province's human rights beurocracy.

In 1997, Gray refused to proclaim Gay and Lesbian Pride Day as requested by the Okanagan Rainbow Coalition, and instead pro-claimed simply Gay and Lesbian Day. The tribunal found he discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation, which is against the B.C. Human Rights Code, even though tribunal chairwoman Carol Roberts agreed that, for Gray to sign the proclamation would have been against his own personal convictions.

Had enough

Walter Gray

Gray could ask the B.C. Supreme Court to determine if forcing him to sign something he disagrees with would contravene his rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"But this is not a fight I want now," he said, indicating he has had enough and wants to get back to more the mundane tasks of being mayor, such as making sure roads and sewers function properly.

Gray has asked the Union of B.C. Municipalities and Federation of Canadian Municipalities to consider continuing the fight and bankrolling it. But so far they don't seem interested.

Before he went before the commission Gray asked the court to rule that to force him to sign a proclamation he did not agree with would contravene his right to freedom of speech under the charter. However, the court said he should wait until the tribunal made its ruling before it would determine if his rights had been violated.

In order to save legal bills Gray decided to represent himself at the tribunal hearings and will not carry on the fight in the B.C. Supreme Court.

"I don't believe I am guilty of discrimination," he said. "I simply put my feet in the sand and said there is a line beyond which I won't go for personal reasons. I am unbendable on this issue."

Gray said he attended the opening of an information centre for gays and lesbians in the city which received $4,000 of the city's annual $38,000 annual budget for social services grants in 1998.

"I care about these people but I don't agree with their lifestyle," he said, adding that he based his decision on Christian principles rather than religions reasons. "The human rights commission is out of control and that comment goes well beyond this issue," he said. "This is moral extortion where I am being told my values are not important."

Gray grew up in St. Michael's and All Angels Anglican church in Kelowna, where he was a server as a boy. "But I don't spring out of bed to go to church on Sunday mornings nowadays,' he said.

For the mayor and the community to openly endorse the gay and lesbian movement would send a wrong signal to youth, Gray said.

"I am very worried we are actually advertising the practices associated with gays and lesbians as kind of acceptable and cool and we shouldn't be doing that."

Two churches

David Martyn

Much of the local Christian community supports Gray but some do not. This difference is best reflected in Kelowna's two largest United churches. David Martyn, who is the minister at First United, walked in the gay parade himself. Also, a member of his congregation, Cliff Turner, is a prominent spokesman for the local gay community.

"I think he [Gray] should have signed it," Martyn said. "The event here in Kelowna has been quite respectable. The fear many people had [that there would be exhibitionism] did not happen."

He said proclamations by the mayor don't mean much anymore anyway so he hardly thinks signing a gay pride proclamation would be seen as endorsing the homosexual lifestyle.

"They [proclamations] are now just a form of advertising," Martyn said. "You have real estate agents laying wreaths at the Cenotaph [on Remembrance Day]."

God created gays as well as everyone else, Martyn said. "If we don't have pride in what God did were are missing something."

Wayne Laurie, of St. Paul's United, comes at the issue from a totally different perspective. "I am very pleased he [Gray] faced the human rights commission and shared his personal thoughts and feelings," Laurie said. "The community is being bullied on this issue and this one man has stood up for it."

Laurie said he is a champion of equal treatment for gays and lesbians, but draws the line at coercion by government human rights organizations and his own denomination to endorse, even celebrate, a lifestyle which he believes is not biblical. "There should be no discrimination (against gays) in jobs or housing," Laurie said. "But does that mean I have to bless a union that from my biblical perspective is wrong?"

He said he and his church have taken a lot of flak from the leadership of their denomination for the congregation's stand, although head office has a good relationship with First United and the two groups simply agree to disagree. Anyone who opposes the gay and lesbian agenda to force society to endorse their lifestyle will face ongoing opposition. Gray "is going to be harassed and picked on, and he will pay a price," says Laurie.

However, Gray appears to have won at least the last round. The Okanagan Rainbow Coalition had asked the tribunal to fine him $10,000, force him and city council to take a course designed to combat 'homophobia' and force him to issue the proclamation, including the word 'pride.'

No fine

In her decision, tribunal chair Carol Roberts wrote that she was mindful of the coercive nature of forcing Gray to sign a proclamation he didn't believe in and did not think it would be appropriate to fine him or force him to take a course. So she simply ordered him to treat all applicants for proclamations equally in the future.

For the time being the city has a moratorium on all proclamations.

Larson said she and her council offered to make a one-time proclamation for gay and lesbian pride day before bringing their new policy into effect, but that did not satisfy the complainants or convince them to drop their complaint with the commission.

She said her council has solid support for its stand in the community which she described as 75 percent Christian.

[grammafreddy]

Well, that's #2 and #3 strikes against him, IMO.

#2 - He's religious
#3 - He's anti-gay

[Bsuds]

Well, that's #2 and #3 strikes against him, IMO.

#2 - He's religious
#3 - He's anti-gay

You forgot too old, and that's 3 strikes he's out.

[Captain Awesome]

Either that or "Gutless Sharon".

[pacificcapital]

Very well said!

Go Walter Go! You have the business savvy to turn this City around.

[Black Daisies]

I'd rather vote for someone who's perceived as "gutless" rather than someone who doesn't value all citizens of the community he was elected to represent.