kelownaelections.ca

Les Bellamy

Candidate for Councillor

Background

Les Bellamy is a Kelowna home builder and the CEO of Bellamy Homes, a custom and semi-custom home building and design company. He has worked in the construction industry for more than 30 years.

Bellamy has been involved in community organizations including the Kelowna Legacy Group, where he recently advocated for a second site search for a performing arts centre. His volunteer work includes local charities, youth sports, skilled-trades advocacy, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, and the Food Bank.

Bellamy has no prior Kelowna campaign-finance disclosure on file (2014–2022) and no previous elective office in Kelowna identified. (Elections BC FRPC — see dry-run/campaign-finance.md, 2026)

2026 Campaign

Bellamy launched his council campaign on August 6, 2026, at Kelly O'Bryan's in Kelowna, with more than 70 attendees. His campaign slogan is "Less Politics. Real Solutions."

His platform was shaped by an Interactive Voice Response survey of 501 residents. The top concerns identified were public safety and crime, followed by cost of living and municipal governance, then homelessness, mental health, and addiction — the three categories accounting for 66% of responses.

His five platform pillars are: (1) Safe Streets & Public Spaces — "Compassion and accountability must go hand in hand"; (2) Housing People Can Afford — "More choice. Lower costs. Better planning"; (3) Responsible Growth — "infrastructure ahead of growth"; (4) Respect Taxpayers, Measure Results — supporting an independent operational review; (5) Strong Local Economy — reducing unnecessary barriers and encouraging investment.

In an undated ForChange Kelowna candidate questionnaire, Bellamy reiterated his five-pillar platform and sharpened his public-safety framing, stating that laws and bylaws should be applied equally and that "compassion cannot mean accepting open drug use or persistent public disorder that prevents residents from safely using our community." He said he had spoken with over 750 residents during the campaign.

In an undated Strong Towns Kelowna candidate questionnaire, Bellamy added positions on transportation and process. He said transportation spending should reflect how residents actually move and should not favour one mode ideologically, with each investment evaluated against cost, actual and projected use, year-round practicality and the number of residents it benefits. On Bernard Avenue's seasonal closure, he said he would first gather candid feedback from businesses, residents and visitors, examine the cost to the City and the success measures set when the policy was introduced, and review year-over-year economic data. On engagement, he proposed earlier, broader and measurable public input — including statistically meaningful surveys — with reporting on participation, what was heard and what changed. He also supported an independent external review of City operations.

At the third Castanet election forum (Revelry Kelowna, October 1, 2026), Bellamy put numbers to his infrastructure-financing plan, proposing that development cost charges be amortized over a home's roughly 50-year life so a cost he said could otherwise add about $50,000 to a purchase price becomes roughly $50–$80 a month. On public safety, he said the city has added 17 bylaw officers since 2017 for a total of 42, working until 10 p.m., and that this schedule should be shifted to later hours when disorder peaks. He said he has spoken to over 1,200 residents in five weeks, with homelessness and addiction the top concern, and pointed to the "Red Fish" facility in Coquitlam — a combined detox, treatment, recovery and aftercare campus — as a model he would pursue on city-owned "Diamond Mountain" land. He recounted arriving in Kelowna at 19, working in restaurants and as a construction labourer before founding his companies, and advocating on building codes and housing affordability at the B.C. legislature and Parliament Hill. The $50,000, $50–$80, bylaw-count and 1,200-resident figures are as stated by Bellamy and have not been independently verified.

Closed-door meetings (October 2026)

An October 1, 2026 Castanet story on an increase in Kelowna council business held in camera noted that Bellamy had raised the issue a year earlier, taking issue with closed-door meetings of a committee tasked with finding a new location for an arts centre. The article presents such concerns alongside the view of former city clerk Stephen Fleming, who said he does not believe Kelowna uses closed meetings excessively compared with other local governments and attributed part of the trend to a province-wide shift toward confidential information.

Campaign site: https://votebellamy.ca

Questionnaire responses

Answers to the standardized Kelowna Elections questionnaire, sent in identical form to every councillor candidate. Published verbatim; received 2026-09-21.

1. Housing affordability

Kelowna needs more choice in housing, not simply more housing. We need apartments and condos, but also townhomes, duplexes, smaller single-family homes and other ground-oriented options that local families can realistically aspire to own.

I support faster, more predictable approvals and greater flexibility on density where infrastructure can support it. I also want Kelowna to pursue changes to how growth infrastructure is financed, because loading decades of infrastructure costs onto the first purchaser through the price of a new home works directly against affordability.

2. Public safety

I don’t see enforcement and prevention as competing priorities. We need RCMP and bylaw resources dealing with crime and disorder today, including shifting some bylaw coverage into the late evening and overnight hours, while also investing in prevention so fewer people enter the cycle of addiction, homelessness and crime in the first place.

Compassion and accountability have to exist together. Mental-health, treatment and social supports matter, but residents, workers and businesses also have a right to feel safe in their community.

3. Homelessness & the supervised consumption site

I support harm reduction as one part of the response to addiction, but I would not support renewing the supervised consumption site in its current form and location without significant changes. Harm reduction can save lives, but keeping someone alive cannot be the end goal; we need much greater access to prevention, detox, treatment and recovery so there is a pathway out of addiction.

The City does not control these health services, but it should be a strong advocate to Interior Health and the Province while continuing to address the impacts of homelessness and street disorder on residents and businesses. Compassion has to include both the people struggling on our streets and the community living with the consequences.

4. Taxes & budget

I don’t believe the first response to rising costs should always be higher taxes. I would support an independent external review of City spending to identify efficiencies, duplication and programs that are not delivering measurable value before asking taxpayers for more.

I would protect core services such as public safety and infrastructure, while scrutinizing discretionary spending and lower-priority capital projects. The objective isn’t simply cutting for the sake of cutting; it is making sure taxpayers are getting value for the money we already spend.

5. Growth & infrastructure funding

I don’t believe we have a growth problem, I believe we have a planning problem. Growth should pay for growth, but we need to rethink a system that loads decades of infrastructure costs onto the first purchaser of a new home; I would advocate to the Province for tools that allow some infrastructure costs to be financed over the useful life of the asset.

My highest infrastructure priority is our transportation network. Kelowna has grown dramatically, but our major transportation corridors have not kept pace, and we need a long-term plan that looks decades ahead rather than continually reacting to congestion after it arrives.

6. Transit & getting around

My priority is the road network because it carries the overwhelming majority of people and goods moving around our city, but that does not mean ignoring transit, walking or cycling. We need to improve the entire transportation network, with investments based on actual demand, usage and measurable results.

I would focus on long-term road capacity and bottlenecks, while improving transit frequency on routes where ridership supports it and completing important walking and cycling connections. Kelowna needs transportation choices, but we also need to recognize that families, seniors, tradespeople and businesses will continue to depend heavily on vehicles.

7. Downtown & the local economy

A vibrant downtown starts with people feeling safe enough to live, work, shop and spend time there. I would increase bylaw presence into the late evening and overnight hours, enforce our laws consistently, and continue pressing the Province for better prevention, treatment and recovery services to address the causes behind much of the street disorder.

At the same time, we need to keep bringing people downtown through restaurants, retail, arts, entertainment, events and tourism. Supporting downtown businesses means addressing the street crisis while continuing to make downtown a place people actually want to visit.

Follow-up responses

Answers to the Kelowna Elections follow-up questionnaire on three live community issues, sent in identical form to every councillor candidate. Published verbatim; received 2026-09-28.

1. Audible bird-scare devices ("bird cannons")

Agriculture is an important part of Kelowna, and people who choose to live next to agricultural land have to accept that farming creates some noise and disruption. At the same time, farmers and their neighbours should make reasonable efforts to coexist. I would first explore alternatives, reasonable operating practices and good-neighbour agreements before imposing restrictions that could interfere with a farmer's ability to protect their crop.

2. Prospera Place / MNP Place operator and transparency

I strongly support transparency around how the City evaluates and awards major public contracts, including making the evaluation criteria, decision-making process and final agreement public wherever legally permitted. However, competing bids can contain confidential and proprietary business information, and I would not support releasing information the City has a legal or contractual obligation to protect. Transparency should be maximized, but it still has to respect procurement law and commercial confidentiality.

3. Highway 97 right-of-way protection

Highway 97 is a provincial highway, so Kelowna cannot solve this issue on its own. I want the Province to complete a serious study of the long-term alternatives, including another bridge or a bypass, and make a decision on the future corridor. Once that direction is established, Kelowna can plan its transportation network and future growth around it rather than continuing to plan without knowing the Province's long-term solution.

Endorsements

ForChange Kelowna recommends Les Bellamy as one of eight candidates for Kelowna city council in the 2026 election. ForChange Kelowna is a Kelowna volunteer group that reviewed candidates' questionnaire responses, held structured interviews and attended forums; it lists its eight recommendations alphabetically rather than by ranking. The group describes itself as independent and not affiliated with any political party, slate or business organization, and is registered with Elections BC as a third-party advertising sponsor (principal official Francis Braam).

Registered campaign links

From the official candidate registration record; presence here is not an endorsement.

Financial agent: Madison Galton

← Back to all candidates