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There had been a few high profile names bandied-about as possible successors to Kelowna-Mission MLA Steve Thomson.
The riding is such a BC Liberal stronghold that the nomination comes with a near-certain election win, so Renee Merrifield was more than willing to interrupt a teleconference to take the call late Monday morning.
"It was not Andrew it was one of the party executives and she just said 'are you ready?'" said the Kelowna Developer. "You have 30 seconds to decide."
The Andrew she referenced is BC Liberal Party Leader Andrew Wilkinson.
That phone call comes instead of the normal, open nomination process. But under the circumstances of the snap election, there isn't time. "I think everyone holds a little disappointment in that," she admits.
Merrifield, along with the rest of her party, is accusing John Horgan of politicizing the pandemic with the sudden election call, but she looks visibly pleased with the position it places her in.
"I'm excited," she said. "And the one thing I would say, having done a nomination already for a different party on a different level of politics, my team is there and they're ready."
In Kelowna-Mission, the NDP is nowhere near ready. In fact, they have yet to select a candidate.
"As of this morning, the Liberal Party had 64 candidates," Merrifield explained, "and the NDP were sitting at about 45 So I don't know. They knew the timing of the election so I'm not sure why there weren't able to get candidates."
The NDP nomination in Kelowna-Mission is a tough gig. The NDP has never won here.
But she's making no assumptions. "I would never take anything for granted. I honestly believe that although this has been historically a BC Liberal riding, I don't think that that's a given."
Merrifield believes that with her background in business, she can make a positive contribution in government.
"Obviously I've worked in the development industry over the course of the last 22 years, so housing holds such a special place for me," she added.
"If you look at my board positions right now, it's everything from the finance sector to retail to the cannabis industry. So honestly I could go in any different direction and I'm just willing to serve."
Election day is October 24.
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