By Greg Fry

Kamloops mayoral candidate offering voters a ‘progressive choice’

Jul 20, 2018 | 10:15 AM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops man who champions social causes has decided to challenge Mayor Ken Christian in this fall’s municipal election.

Eleven-year Kamloops resident William James Turnbull originally hails from Smithers. Prior to moving to Kamloops, he spent 22 years living in Williams Lake.

Turnbull says he spent many years working for CP Rail on the maintenance crews but now runs his own foundation, the Turnbull Humanitarian Foundation.

Through his foundation work, he’s supported a number of causes including Kamloops Pride, JUMP Kamloops, and the Elizabeth Fry Society and its single mother initiatives.

Turnbull has also been involved with the Kamloops Downtown Neighbours Association and its efforts lobbying for more homeless shelters, a situation he calls urgent.

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And though he supports some of the city’s homeless initiatives so far — including the promise of modular housing and storage facilities for the homeless — he says more needs to be done.

“I consider it an emergency. People are starving and dying. We managed to house thousands during the wildfires. We’re only talking 201 people here. We could even billet them. We’re the Tournament Capital.”

When comparing himself to Ken Christian, he says he’s offering voters a clear, “progressive” choice.

“I’m definitely the opposite of Ken in a lot of ways. I came out in favour of proportional representation. He didn’t. I’ve been working with the city to get a shelter happening and I don’t feel it’s happening, because unfortunately, the city doesn’t want it,” he says.

“There’s different viewpoints on that, but I’m pretty sure we want all the needles to go away and people sleeping in the alleys and in front of businesses to go away. And the way to do that is to increase housing. Increasing policing is not going to do that. It’s just going to get worse and worse.”

This is Turnbull’s first run for local government, though he financially supported a number of candidates in last year’s by-election and this year’s upcoming election.

Those he supported last year include successful council candidate Kathy Sinclair, Sadie Hunter and mayoral challenger Bill McQuarrie. This year, he says he’s supporting council candidates Bill Sarai, Hunter and Leslie Lax.

So, why not run for a council seat instead?

“A couple of reasons. I have supported councillors in their campaign last year and this year and it didn’t feel right to all of a sudden to be competing against them. And it’s the brass ring. It’s the best job. I may as well go for it.”

So far Turnbull and Christian are the only declared mayoral candidates.

Voters head to the polls October 20, 2018.