A B.C. man running for Kelowna City Council who says he doesn’t even like politics is garnering lots of attention online, and it isn’t because of his policies or campaign promises.
Brady Rogers, who calls himself an “inventor,” “resonator,” and a “recovering over-thinker,” has been campaigning in Kelowna with interesting signs and unconventional messaging.
His campaign messages make it seem like he doesn’t want to run at all.
Some of his campaign signs include slogans such as “How hard could it be?” and “Fine. I’ll do it.”
A couple of his signs shared online prior to printing even misspell council, with examples like “coucil” and “counsil.”
He has promised his followers that he plans to spell future signs correctly, saying, “It’s a travesty. My mom is an English teacher. Anyway, luckily my sign guy is on the ball, so I think everything got fixed before printing. Love you all.”
One of his signs promises, “Don’t worry. I’ll fix everything,” with the disclaimer “terms and conditions apply.”
Nonetheless, he is garnering lots of attention online, and not just for the jokes, but also for the fact that he’s a younger voice in Kelowna politics, which some who’ve commented on his posts say is needed in the city. Despite his jokey campaign signs and self-deprecating humour, he does have legitimate reasons for wanting to run for council.
Rogers is a UBC Okanagan graduate who says he worked for four years as a robotic automation engineer. Since 2019, Rogers has been building The Rogerie, which is a shop in downtown Kelowna.
He left the robotics industry because the job was, according to him, soulless, and he wanted to use his abilities to do more than help huge companies save money.
“I care a lot about my city and the people who live in it. I care about small businesses, about the homeless, and about people having the opportunity to live life the way they want,” Rogers notes on his campaign page.
He adds, “I believe that government is for the people and needs to defend our interests. Far too often, we feel like the systems around us are happening to us.”
Rogers says he wants to understand how the city works, and who it’s working for, “and help make sure the answer is all of us.”
One of his key campaign focuses is transit.
“The goal of transit shouldn’t be to technically have transit. It should be to make owning a car optional for more people,” he notes on his website.
He also says he wants the City of Kelowna to tax land more and buildings less.
“B.C. cities used to have another option: tax land and improvements at different rates. By 1914, roughly two-thirds of B.C. municipalities used forms of land-value taxation. Today, provincial law doesn’t give Kelowna that choice.”
We’ve reached out to Rogers for comment on his campaign.
A well-known influencer shared his campaign, calling it the most millennial thing she’s ever seen.
It’s a crazy time for politics in B.C., and over the next three weeks, voters in the province will be voting in two elections. Final voting day for municipal elections takes place on Oct. 17, while the final voting day for the provincial election is Oct. 24.