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Friday, January 15, 2016
Vol.8 • Issue 57
Kindergarten coming to Wildflower See Page 2
Isaac McLeod starts over See Page 9
Nelson voted 65% NDP, election breakdowns show
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STEVE HUBRECHT Invermere Valley Echo
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Alison VanNest, Chander Nath and Lita Moth are the trio behind the latest marijuana dispensary to open in downtown Nelson, Kootenay Compassion Collective. Will Johnson photo
Nelson’s dispensary count reaches five The city is impatiently waiting for the federal government to move ahead with marijuana legalization
Barbie Wheaton
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WILL JOHNSON Nelson Star
Nelson Mayor Deb Kozak is impatiently waiting for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to follow through on his promise to legalize marijuana, especially now
that a sixth illegal storefront dispensary is rumoured to be moving to town. “I think it certainly demonstrates that there are plenty of entrepreneurs in the community anticipating legalization and leaping ahead,” she told the Star. “I’m wondering how many of those would survive over time in such a small community, and I don’t know if all of them are catering to the same customer base.” Regardless, the city still isn’t granting
business licenses to these operations and is viewing them as illegal. Currently five dispensaries operate in Nelson. The Nelson Compassion Club, Cannaclinic and Kootenays Medicine Tree are all clustered around the intersection of Front and Hall streets; there’s one in Urban Legends on Baker St.; and the Kootenay Compassion Collective opened in the former Front St. camCONTINUED ON A5
First of two parts Town-by-town breakdowns of election day voting for the Kootenay-Columbia riding in last fall’s federal election show several clear and intriguing geographic trends. The figures, obtained by the Invermere Valley Echo, have been made available to local candidates, but not yet to the general public. The results do not include the nearly 25 per cent of the KootenayColumbia voters who cast ballots during advance polls. The western part of the riding voted strongly on election day for the NDP — the eventual winners. The southern part of the riding stood staunchly behind the thenincumbent Conservatives. The northern part of the riding was the most evenly divided, with no party able to capture more than 50 per cent of the vote in any of those areas. There are several exceptions to these general trends but, by and large, most communities in the western part of the riding (Nelson, Kaslo, and surrounding regions), NDP candidate Wayne Stetski captured at least 50 per cent of the vote on election day. In several places, he managed to get more than 60 per cent of the vote, including 69.9 percent in Blewett (which was the largest vote share captured by any candidate in a single community CONTINUED ON A17
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