There will be a race for Mayor in 100 Mile House.
David Jurek’s name will be on the ballot in October joining incumbent Maureen Pinkney for the District’s top job.
Jurek says he started out in forestry as a logger and has now been in real estate for 24 years, including owning his own office.
He says he’s not running because he thinks the current Mayor is doing a bad job.
“I’m running for an opportunity that I see, maybe some fresh perspectives on something that when you’ve been here for a long time maybe you overlook, because we all just start to take things for granted. When this is what we know, it’s easy to take it for granted, and I think we have some great opportunity and I want to just explore down those avenues much further.”
He calls the region a hidden gem.
“The lifestyle that we get to live here is just so incredible and I feel a lot of people don’t know that. I think we need to take a look at why people come here. I’ve been here for 10 years and the people that come here move here for lifestyle, and some of the opportunities that we have on that front is just hard to beat anywhere else. So I think we need to take a closer look at that, focus on what we’re good at, and attract the right people who are looking for the lifestyle.”
Jurek says affordable real estate is another huge selling point.
“I moved here from Kelowna. I sold a normal house in the city and bought a house on the lake, something I would never even dream of being able to do in Kelowna and here I get to do that, so I think we need to use what we have to attract the businesses and the professionals we need and hopefully build on that from there.”
Jurek says they have lost some key industry over the last few years, and he acknowledges that it has been hard for the community, for the people that worked at the mill themselves and then all the businesses that obviously feed off of that industry also, but he says it is time to look forward and pivot.
He says he feels there is an opportunity in 100 Mile House that people just aren’t seeing.
