August 2015 BCBusiness 37
K
e
l
o
w
n
a
'
s
second
wind
Sure, it's the heart of wine country and home to some of B.C.'s
most spectacular natural wonders. And yes, retirees and tourists
still come here in droves. But with a burgeoning tech sector, an
acclaimed university and a boom in housing, the Okanagan's biggest
city is now taking on a decidedly younger •air
BY
JAMIE
MAW
// PHOTOGRAPHY BY DARREN HULL //
Municipal Election Day dawned clear and piercingly
cold in Kelowna. After months on the stump, and a quiet celebration
of his 37th birthday with his wife, Leanne, the night before, Colin Basran,
a young Indo-Canadian former broadcaster, realtor and one-term city
councillor—and now mayoral hopeful—hauled himself out of bed
and poured a bowl of cereal on the morning of November 15.
Civic election polling is almost non-existent in smaller cities. Despite
running a largely positive campaign that dominated social media, his
connection with professionals and seniors was tough to quantify. Election
Day was proving the most anxious day of his life. "On a scale of one to 10,
I was at least an 11," he says today, almost six months later. After all, he was
up against a former three-term councillor and two-term mayor, Sharon
Shepherd, older than he by a generation.
