Editor’s note: These are the fourth in a series of profiles of the candidates for Boundary-Similkameen MLA.
Fed up with what he views as an overly secretive society, Osoyoos man Doug Pederson is trying to loosen up things with his bid for office.
The 64-year-old is one of two independent candidates contesting the Boundary-Similkameen riding in the May 14 provincial election. Pederson’s rivals are New Democrat Sam Hancheroff, Liberal Linda Larsen, the Green party’s John Kwasnica and independent Mischa Popoff.
Pederson, a self-described “semi-retired computer and video nut” originally from Whitecourt, Alta., said via email that he’s running “for total transparency and mini-referendums” for the riding’s residents.
He said his top two issues are corruption and the Young Offenders Act.
Pederson’s campaign material explains a desire to video record everything and make it available both online and on DVDs, and to do the same for citizen-requested research.
He also claims to have posted 2,900 videos on Youtube and to have archived every single one of his emails since 1996 and made them searchable.
Among the videos he’s posted online is a clip from an April 30 all-candidates meeting in Osoyoos, at which Pederson told the audience not to bring “crap questions” to a subsequent forum in Oliver.
“Don’t ask us how we’re going to fix the economy,” he said, “because none of us can do that. Not here.”