Candidate for the Office of Councillor
Hello my fellow Boweners! My name is Keith Davidson, and I’m asking for your vote for council!
When my wife and I moved to Bowen two years ago, I found myself drawn back to the small-town life I grew up with in Nelson, BC. Since arriving, we’ve thrown ourselves into island life, and you’ll find me on the board of Light Up Bowen, stage managing productions for our island theatre companies, or elbow-deep in something at the Fix-It Fair, Men’s Shed, or the Hearth.
Before coming to Bowen, I spent two decades in the telecom industry, much of it leading teams through complex, high-stakes change: building new business lines from the ground up and working directly with governments to bring new technology into the real world. What that career really taught me is how to be creative and stay calm when the path forward isn’t obvious, and how to actually get something done rather than just talk about doing it. I’ve learned that the “fixer” instinct of rolling up your sleeves and finding a way through is how anything worthwhile actually happens.
I’m running for council because I believe small municipalities like ours need more people to step up and get their hands dirty for the community. I also believe it matters to have younger voices on council, people who’ll be living with today’s decisions for decades to come. To me, doing that work means being genuinely curious about everything that crosses the council agenda, from infrastructure and capital projects to social programs, the ferry, development, tourism, all of it. That breadth is what the job calls for, and it’s where I think I can genuinely help. I’ve built a career and a life around being a generalist: getting into the weeds on things I knew little about a week earlier, moving comfortably between technical problems and people problems, and treating “I don’t know yet” as a starting point. What I’d bring isn’t a single cause to champion, but the attention and skills to engage with the full range of what Bowen needs.
I feel it in my bones that politics and bureaucracy can erode people’s hope in the systems meant to serve them. But despair is not wisdom, and cynicism isn’t a solution: it’s where people land when things feel too slow or too closed off to change. As a councillor, I’ll work tirelessly to improve the lines of communication between council and Bowen. That also means looking hard at the existing processes and cutting the steps that just create friction.
I know I’m still relatively new here, and I don’t have four years of council meetings behind me, but I’ve spent two years listening, learning, and getting involved. If elected, I’ll keep doing what I’ve done since we arrived: show up, ask good questions, and do the work.
I’ll be out around the island for coffee a few times a week during the campaign; watch Facebook for where to find me. You can also reach me at keith@keithdavidson.ca.