Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay

Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay is a large riding in south-central British Columbia that stretches from E.C. Manning Provincial Park in the west through the Okanagan wine country to the smelter city of Trail and the mountain communities of Rossland and Castlegar in the east. The riding was renamed from South Okanagan—West Kootenay following the 2022 redistribution to reflect the addition of the Similkameen Valley, including Princeton and Hedley. Long-time NDP MP Richard Cannings, who had held the seat since 2015, did not seek re-election in 2025, leaving an open contest.

Candidates

Helena Konanz (Conservative) is a Penticton city councillor first elected to council in 2011 and most recently re-elected in 2022. Born in the United States, Konanz attended UCLA on a tennis scholarship, competing professionally in events including the US Open and Wimbledon before retiring from the sport and moving to Canada to work in the sports equipment industry. She holds a master's degree in urban studies and political science from UBC Okanagan and has volunteered extensively with the Penticton Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club. This was her third attempt at winning the federal seat, having placed second to Cannings in both 2019 and 2021.

Gloria Morgan (Liberal) has had a diverse career spanning law enforcement, law, and First Nations governance. She served as an RCMP officer before earning a law degree from UBC and practising as a criminal defence lawyer, Crown prosecutor, and circuit counsel. She later served as Chief of the Splatsin te Secwepemc First Nation and as a federal adjudicator for the Indian Residential Schools Independent Assessment Process. A residential school survivor, Morgan is a recipient of the BC Reconciliation Award.

Linda Sankey (NDP) is a Penticton resident with over 30 years of experience in government and non-profit sectors. She began her career at BC Housing as a shop steward and later became Executive Director of the South Okanagan Similkameen Brain Injury Society. She has served on the City of Penticton Housing Task Force and co-chaired the 100 More Homes Penticton Collaborative, focused on affordable housing.

Philip Mansfield (Green Party) is a first-generation Canadian who holds a PhD from Yale University and has served as a professor at the University of Toronto and Simon Fraser University. He has lived on a cherry farm in Penticton for nearly a decade.

About the Riding

Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay is defined by its agricultural, resource, and tourism economies spread across dramatically varied terrain. The Okanagan Valley portion of the riding—centred on Penticton, with Oliver and Osoyoos to the south and Naramata to the north—is the heart of British Columbia's wine industry, with hundreds of wineries and vineyards lining the lakes and benchlands. The semi-arid climate that makes viticulture possible also supports tree fruit orchards and vegetable farming, though water supply and wildfire risk are constant challenges.

The Similkameen Valley, running west from Keremeos through Hedley to Princeton, is a more sparsely populated corridor with a mixed economy of ranching, mining, and small-scale agriculture. Princeton, devastated by severe flooding in November 2021, was still dealing with recovery and infrastructure rebuilding heading into the 2025 election.

The West Kootenay portion of the riding includes Trail, home to Teck Resources' massive zinc and lead smelter—one of the largest in the world and the city's dominant employer—as well as Rossland, a mountain community with a tourism economy built around skiing and outdoor recreation, and Castlegar at the confluence of the Columbia and Kootenay rivers. Grand Forks, in the Boundary region, rounds out the riding's eastern communities.

In 2025, wildfire preparedness and climate adaptation were urgent concerns across the riding, following devastating fire seasons in recent years. The US trade dispute threatened agricultural exporters—the wine, fruit, and ranching industries all depend on cross-border markets—while the future of Teck's Trail smelter operations carried significant implications for the West Kootenay economy. Healthcare access, particularly physician shortages in rural communities, and the affordability of housing in resort-adjacent towns like Penticton and Rossland were pressing local issues.