Listen to this story:

The quick read: Kelowna voters handed Mayor Tom Dyas a second term on Saturday, but only just. Unofficial results with all polls reporting show Dyas at 50.5 per cent of the vote (19,451 ballots) against former councillor and MP Ron Cannan's 48.0 per cent (18,482) — a margin of just 969 votes. Andrew Uitvlugt finished a distant third with 1.4 per cent. The City of Kelowna will confirm official results by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21.

Kelowna's mayoral race came down to fewer than a thousand votes on Saturday night.

Unofficial results, with all polls reporting, put incumbent Tom Dyas at 50.5 per cent of the vote (19,451 ballots) and challenger Ron Cannan at 48.0 per cent (18,482), with Andrew Uitvlugt trailing at 1.4 per cent.

It is a dramatically different outcome from 2022, when Dyas swept to victory with more than 62 per cent of the vote.

A restless electorate

The message from voters is hard to misread: re-elect the incumbent, but keep his feet to the fire.

Cannan's campaign leaned hard on the issues that clearly moved tens of thousands of Kelowna voters: four straight budgets with tax increases, a 4.4 per cent property tax hike for 2026, and a council that does more and more of its business behind closed doors.

Cannan voted against every one of those budgets, arguing the increases were more than households can bear.

Dyas countered with the practical business-manager case: the budgets pay for police, roads and recreation, the city added 33 RCMP officers during his term, and he has promised 75 more frontline public-safety positions.

On growth, Dyas backed rental and density approvals along urban corridors; Cannan wanted infrastructure built before more growth was approved.

What comes next

Dyas now governs a city where nearly half the voters preferred his opponent — a mandate for steadiness, not for business as usual.

The City of Kelowna will confirm the official results by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21.

For a mayor who once won in a landslide, this squeaker of a win is a clear instruction: keep taxes, budgets and public safety at the top of the agenda, and earn the other half of the city.

Photo credit: Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels