Rudy 2006-10

Sharon Shepherd, Kelowna's First Lady Mayor Seniors Choice Newsmagazine October 2006 - By Rudy Loeser - By the time you read this, it will have been eleven months since Her Worship Sharon Shepherd was elected mayor of Kelowna. Though those who knew her had expected her to win, some people were surprised, and no one more, I suspect, than the incumbent Walter Gray, who could not possibly have seen his rout coming because he was comfortable in the Mayor's chair, and a popular guy. Then came Sharon Shepherd with a whole new agenda. For those of you in other locales, it might be of interest that, before becoming our Mayor, Sharon Shepherd served three terms as member of Kelowna City Council. During this time, she also served as Chair of Kelowna's Heritage Commission, as Chair of the Regional Air Quality Committee, as well as contributing her energies and common sense as member of the Board of Directors of the Central Okanagan Regional District, the Central Okanagan Community Health Advisory Committee, the Parks Committee, the City of Kelowna Arts Foundation, the Central Okanagan Regional District Transportation Committee, the Community Housing Needs Committee, the Planning and Environment Committee and the Growth Management Committee, among others. The list of her civic activities spans the wide range of needs and concerns of the citizens of Kelowna specifically, and the Okanagan Valley generally. Those responsibilities, plus a few others, demonstrate that Sharon Shepherd takes her work for, and in the community, seriously. Even as I write this, her Worship is preparing to lead a contingent to the meeting of the International Downtown Business Association in Portland, Oregon, which city is in the vanguard of dealing with the same kind of problems which have beset Kelowna in recent years. Problems like monitoring the crystal meth issue in our town that has been a target of a recent citizens' committee. The Mayor told me, there is, at last, the beginning of a solution to the problem, that includes a speakers' list, educational literature and other ammunition, that are expected to head the growing problem off at the pass. She is 'shepherding' a formed committee on transit, which involves youth, a newly incorporated committee on women in community issues, the task force on housing, and the Town Centre committees of Rutland and Kelowna. Those are some examples of the issues about which our Mayor becomes quite definite and emotional. She has high hopes for the Portland meet. It would be easy to suppose that the broad spectrum of Ms. Shepherd's involvements might lead you to forget that she has a private life. And you'd be wrong. Her background, other than civic politics? She is a devoted wife, Mom, and daughter. She married Michael Shepherd, a physician, in 1972, the year before she graduated from UBC, with a degree in Pharmacy, and worked as hospital pharmacist at St. Paul's in Vancouver prior to moving to Kelowna in 1977. Since then, she has been employed as Medical Office Manager at the medical practice her husband shares with two other physicians, and has raised a son and a daughter. Moreover, Sharon Shepherd has not let the weight of her civic duties lesson her sense of humour. Had you attended the opening of the play Little Shop of Horrors, the play staged by the Kelowna Actors Studio, you would have seen our Mayor in a cameo role reserved for VIPs, as announcer for the fictitious radio station WSKID (on Skid Row). Obviously, the lady is many-faceted. If she were ever to consider running for the office of Canada's Prime Minister, I would be among the first to support her campaign. And why not? The Brits had their Margaret Thatcher, the Norwegians had Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Germans have their Angela Merkel, Ireland has Mary McAleese, and New Zealand elected Helen Clark. Sharon could make it. Not just because she's brainy, but because she is a compassionate, thinking human being. But when I asked her whether she would ever consider running for provincial or federal politics, she did not rule it out but stated that she would likely not be happy about subordinating her ideas and ideals to the strictures imposed by a party line. That is the dilemma faced by all politicians. If the time ever comes, I'm sure that candidate Sharon Shepherd will face the challenge.

 

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