Penticton—Summerland

Penticton—Summerland occupies the southern end of Okanagan Lake, where the city of Penticton sits on the narrow strip of land between Okanagan Lake and Skaha Lake. The riding extends south to include the Naramata Bench — home to dozens of wineries along a scenic lakeshore road — and west to encompass Summerland, a community of roughly 12,000 perched above the lake's western shore amid orchards and vineyards. The 2024 redistribution merged the two communities into a single riding for the first time, combining Penticton's mix of retirees, tourism workers, and young families with Summerland's agricultural character.

The seat was open in 2024. Dan Ashton, who had held the Penticton riding for the BC Liberals since 2013, chose not to seek re-election. The collapse of BC United left Tracy St Claire — originally the party's nominated candidate — running without a party banner, while the Conservatives and NDP competed for the seat in what became one of the tightest races in the province.

Candidates

Amelia Boultbee (Conservative Party) — Boultbee was a Penticton city councillor and fourth-generation Pentictonite who held a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Juris Doctor from the University of British Columbia's Peter A. Allard School of Law. She had worked as a civil litigator specializing in personal injury, real estate, construction, and family law. She secured the Conservative nomination in February 2024 and became the first woman elected to represent the riding.

Tina Lee (BC NDP) — Lee was a communications and engagement specialist with a thirty-year career in human rights advocacy, having worked across six continents with international non-profit organizations. She had served as an executive with the City of Penticton and worked in outreach for MP Richard Cannings. She sat on the Okanagan College Board of Governors and was vice-president of the BC NDP.

Tracy St Claire (Independent) — St Claire was the former BC United candidate who continued her campaign as an unaffiliated candidate after the party suspended operations. She had served as a school trustee for School District 67 and was executive director of the South Okanagan Similkameen Division of Family Practice, an organization focused on recruiting and retaining family doctors. She received the endorsement of retiring MLA Dan Ashton.

Bradley Bartsch (BC Green Party) — Bartsch was president of Bradley Bartsch Consulting Inc., a firm specializing in campaign strategy and constituent relations. He moved to Penticton in 2021 and campaigned on community-driven development and environmental sustainability.

Roger Harrington and Anna Paddon also ran as Independents, each receiving a minor share of the vote.

Local Issues

The opioid and homelessness crises had intensified in Penticton's downtown between 2020 and 2024. The city recorded among the highest overdose death rates in the Okanagan, and the intersection of addiction, mental health, and housing instability had transformed public spaces in ways that strained the capacity of social service providers and the patience of downtown business owners. The NDP government's decision to decriminalize possession of small amounts of illicit drugs beginning in January 2023 — through a three-year Health Canada exemption — proved controversial, and the subsequent partial reversal in May 2024 restricting public consumption reflected the political pressure building across communities like Penticton. The Penticton Community Action Team, a multi-stakeholder body bringing together Interior Health, the RCMP, the Penticton Indian Band, and local service agencies, continued to coordinate the response, but the scale of the crisis outpaced available treatment and harm reduction resources.

Housing affordability and homelessness were deeply intertwined. By 2024, Penticton's homeless count had identified close to two hundred individuals experiencing homelessness, with the vast majority reporting substance-use challenges. The city and BC Housing had pursued supportive housing projects, but neighbourhood resistance to new facilities remained fierce. The vacancy rate for rental housing remained low across both Penticton and Summerland, and the cost of home ownership had risen steeply since 2020, squeezing the young families and service-sector workers on whom the local tourism economy depended. Summerland's agricultural land base added a further dimension, as the tension between housing development pressure and protection of the Agricultural Land Reserve played out along the community's borders.

Health care access was a defining concern across the riding, particularly the shortage of family physicians. The South Okanagan Similkameen Division of Family Practice — the organization St Claire had led — had been working to recruit and retain general practitioners and nurse practitioners, but thousands of residents remained without a regular family doctor. Wait times at the Penticton Regional Hospital had grown, and access to specialist care required travel to Kelowna or beyond. The riding's large and growing retiree population placed increasing demands on primary care, home support, and long-term care services, and the pandemic had exposed the fragility of the local health infrastructure.