David Habib: 1 on 1 (full interview)

David Habib, candidat pour la City de Kelowna, Kelowna Boxing Club owner, nightclub manager, David, welcome to the campaign trail.

Well, thank you very much. Just so it's clear, the Kelowna Boxing Club is not owned by me. It's a non-profit society. I just want to make sure that people recognize it's not owned by me. It's a non-profit society that I've been involved with for the last 40 years, but it is a non-profit.

Why now does David Habib want to be mayor of Kelowna at this station of your life? Why enter the race?

Well, there's a few reasons. Number one, I'm at the age now where I'm looking back at my children that are all in their 20s and up, and I'm looking at them saying, am I going to be able to leave this planet when I'm preparing for the next phase of what's next, you know, the afterlife or whatever, wherever I go, to sit down and say that I've done my best job and that my kids can live out their life in the same community where I was for 45 years. I think that's important to me as a parent.

I always say to people, one of the most precious days of my life was watching my three-year-old grandson, who's now 14, but he walked down the driveway from where my daughter lived on the property to my house on the acreage we have, and it's a 700-foot driveway. And just watch this little three-year-old boy walk down the driveway on a sunny day and just watch how precious that moment was to see the independence of this little guy coming over to say, good morning, Grandpa. It's the biggest feeling in the world. It's something I still, you know, 11 years later, I think about all the time. And I feel every grandparent should be able to feel that way.

They shouldn't have kids halfway across the world because, or in Penticton or in Vernon, because they can't afford to live in Kelowna. I think that's one of the reasons. The other is, I think we're in the worst position we've been in a long time when you're talking to the citizens of the community. The ones that have a voice are looking at you and say, these are some of the issues they're facing. We all know what they are, from crime to homelessness to affordable housing to mental illness.

There's just a vast array of so many things going wrong, and the fact that we're not getting, that we're number one in crime rate, I know Colin has an issue with that, but when you're number one in crime, and the distance between number one and number two is getting further, instead of us heading towards number two, it gets scary. A lot of people are impacted by those sort of things in our community, and we need to address them. Look at the infrastructure. I haven't seen a road improvement since, I can't even remember the last time I saw where we actually took it upon ourselves to add more lanes, to create new ways of passage through our community. Forget the bridge.

I don't think the bridge is the problem. I think it's leading up to the bridge, or on both sides. I don't think it's the bridge itself. I think it's plenty of access. We just need to deal with the infrastructure on either side of that bridge.

I don't think it's a secret, as you've already mentioned, that crime, traffic, social issues, homelessness, affordability, etc., are the main issues of this campaign that are, you know, affecting the people of Kelowna. All five candidates have mentioned that and talked about that. Why will David Habib do a better job of addressing those than the other four candidates that are running for the same position?

I'm not afraid. I'm not a politician. I'm not afraid. I don't care who I'm looking at. I don't care who I have to battle. I've taken the provincial government to court. I've battled the city of Kelowna. I've battled the RCMP, and I've won. I've won because I'm on the side of truth. I'm on the side of honesty. Look, there are so many issues in this community that need to be addressed. If I have to, as a mayor of our community, go toe-to-toe with the provincial government, I'm prepared. Let's get things done. If we really are the fastest-growing city in the country and we really do have the highest crime rate, we need to be a priority, not just provincially, federally.

And if it's my job to make people listen, if it's my job to speak on behalf of the people, I don't believe anybody else can do it better. I truly don't. And I'm not doing this for the victory dance. This is a four-year thing for me. Four years I'm moving on. I hope I have the ability to mentor somebody, just like I did when I was president of Boxing BC and on the executive of Boxing Canada, same as when I was the president of a private school here, and the same as I'm the president of The Standard, which is the nightclub pub association. Mentor people below you that can take over. These are not lifelong jobs.

The people that are in our administration now that are looking at these as lifetime careers, re-evaluate it. We need change on a regular basis. We need change to bring new dynamics to our community. But most importantly, nobody can fight like I fight because I'm truly passionate and I believe in what we're doing for our community. Every single person should be listened to. And I mean from the homeless. And I mean from the mother that's sleeping in her car with her two children because she can't afford a home, or the young man who has to run to the lake to have a bath every day because he can't afford to rent a place with a shower.

Those are the people I'm trying to talk about because all of those individuals make our lives better. Look at what we got with university students, six university kids in a two-bedroom apartment. Really? Is that what we are as a society? How come we're not embracing these kids and helping them become educated because they're going to take care of us and make our world a better place? The other thing that I find fascinating about school, how can we put these kids in school and expect them to pay 20 and 30 years or even 10 years of debt? They're getting educated to make our world a better place. We're supposed to embrace them, mentor them, bring them up.

Not saddle them with thousands of dollars of debt because they want to be a doctor or a lawyer or a carpenter. Those things just really hit to the core for me, and that's why it is my job as a member of this community to speak out and get results. I'm a results-oriented guy. When I became president of BoxingBC, there was a lot of infighting going on, and I stepped up, took control, solved everything, mentored a young man who went in to become president who just now has moved on to the executive of Boxing Canada. Same thing with the school. They were having a lot of problems. Membership of the school asked me to step up.

I was not even looking for a spot as a chairman of the board, but I ended up in that position. Several years of working there, mentor somebody else, and get out of there. It's the same thing with the standard. Come in, get everybody by into policy and process. Look, we've reduced crime of incidents of violence outside of liquor establishments by over 50%. That happened because you're putting in place policy and process, and you're getting your competition, the people that are in competition in business with you, to buy in. How do you do that? You go over there and you say, look, don't look at me as your competition.

Look at me as your neighbor, because if you need me, I will send my staff here. If you need me, I will be at your doorstep. That's who you have to be as a businessman. You have to step up, help your competition, help the people around you, take care of your neighbors, hug them a little more, and not fight over who's parked in whose driveway, right? There are so many things that need to change, and I believe I can be the voice that can make people see the light.

Change is an easy word. We hear it all the time. You just mentioned it. How do you change the attitudes of people so you can get the job done?

Easy. I can tell you, I'm going to tell you why it's easy, because I believe when we walked into each other today, you didn't know me. You had thoughts in your head on who I am. Some of them may even thought I was nothing even close to what I am. You may have heard rumors. You may have heard things in your life. I'm going to tell you this. By the time I leave here, we'll hug. I'll walk out that door, and you're going to see me next time. You'll say, there's Dave. And you're going to have a different vision on who I am. And when you run into a situation where you might need to talk to somebody or need something from somebody, you're going to say, you know what? Maybe I can call Dave Habib.

Dave Habib was in my office. He seemed like a fair and reasonable guy. Maybe he can help me with a solution to my problem. That's what happens all the time. I can tell you that there's no greater reward than giving back. No money can buy you the gift of watching a young man turn into an adult and a successful adult. A part of the society that gives back. Everybody in this community has to play a part if I take over. Everybody has a voice. Everybody has to support the idea of working together to get the good for the majority of the population. We're not always going to get what we want. I won't always get what I want. I'm wrong ten times a day. I'm a human being.

But what I do is my whole life is set on battling for what's fair and true. I absolutely don't always get what I want because I don't deserve everything I want. But the most important thing people have to know is my number one thing in my life is to watch everybody else succeed. I'm already successful. And I'm successful because the big man upstairs, God himself, makes me successful because I give back. I can tell you it's been the easiest path for me. I don't have to fight anything in the world because that man gives me the power and the strength to keep going and fight for what I believe. And when I see people succeed, there's no greater gift.

You brought it up. We've talked about it privately. Bring it up now. I know it's a sore spot, but there are the rumors. There have been for a number of years about gang or whatever kind of affiliations. Talk about that and dispel those.

Well, here, let me just tell you. All my affiliations are with young individuals in this community, and I mean under the age of 50 that need help. That's my affiliation. My affiliation is that I'm a blessed individual. I'm going to give you a story that might make you think differently. And I apologize to anybody that this may offend. It shouldn't offend anybody, but if it does, I'm going to apologize up front. A few years ago, when I was working at the club, a young lady came into the bar. She walked in. You could tell that she'd had a few drinks. And one of the doormen looked at me and said, under his breath, said, that's Bill McKinnon's daughter.

Bill McKinnon at the time was the superintendent of the RCMP. I saw the girl, and she heard him, and she got very upset. And she started to yell at him and say, don't you ever mention my name and his name in the same sentence. She was very upset. She walked in, scanned her ID, went in. She went around the corner, and I walked around the corner. I followed her. And I walked up to her, and I said, listen, I know your dad. I've met him at the detachment. I've worked through my dealings as a club owner. And I said, I think you're wrong. Your dad loves you. I know your dad. I guarantee you he loves you. You need to reach out to your dad. I think he's one of the greatest guys I've met.

I didn't know him very well, but from every experience I had, he was a fair, extremely fair individual. I then called him the next morning, left a message on his machine, said, listen, I saw your daughter last night. I met her. She's troubled. I think she's screaming for help. You need to reach out to her. I never heard anything except three days later I heard she was arrested for trafficking. Shortly after that I heard he resigned. I can tell you, a couple of years later, a girl walks into the door of the bar, okay? She looks at me and says, do you remember me? And I said, no. She said, I'm Bill McKinnon's daughter. And she said, can I talk to you for a second? I said, yeah.

She looks at me and says to me, I just wanted, I drove from Vancouver, I got out of jail. I want you to know that what you said to me made a difference in my life. Okay? And nobody, nobody can tell you that that shouldn't impact you as a human being when this girl came all that way just to look me in the eye and just to tell me that that made a difference in her life. I don't know where she is today and I'm saddened to know that Bill had to resign. I think he's the best superintendent this community had. I'm not trying to blow smoke. Because when I went to the Canada Games and was representing BC at the Canada Games as the team coach for boxing, Bill McKinnon was there with his daughter.

I think his wife was there, but their family was there. And I was walking through a mall and the man asked me to sit down. We knew of each other. We didn't really know each other. And he turned around and he said to me, hence he wrote me that letter of support, talking about my interaction with the young men in the community and everything else, because he was shocked to see who I was as a human being. And he was very supportive and that's why I think when we rely on rumors and we don't take care of the people that are taking care of us, we lost the best superintendent of this community ever had to be a fair, unbiased individual, to treat human beings the way they all need to be treated.

And as he might say, you tell me who you are and we'll go from there. You show me by your actions who you are and we'll go from there. That's how I feel about myself as a mayor. If anybody's doubting me, put me up to the challenge. Don't put me up to the test. I can tell you without fail, the other two don't hold a candle to me on the accomplishments I can achieve for this community. I'm not putting them down. They're great family men with great families. And I'm going to rely on their expertise as I go forward. I've told them that. I'm going to tell you without a doubt, it's the man behind the wheel, the man that is passionate about getting the job done.

And there is no one greater at that than me.

The last question I want to ask you, and this is all great stuff, talk about homelessness and shelters. I know they're near and dear. And development. How do you see those intertwining and how do we move from where we are now to where you would want us to be as a city?

Easy. Again, community involvement. Developers have to be involved in working together. It's not a fight to see who's number one. We've got to work together as a unit to make our community everything it needs to be. And that means working together, sharing the job, and picking out the experts from different areas to make sure that the guys that are working together come up with the same common dream and same common goal. It's not about filling your coffers with money for your kids. It's about making a world that they can live in and be happy in. I can tell you this is what I believe. There's 180 acres up for sale on McCullough Road.

I believe when it comes to homeless, we take that 180 acres, we get a rich developer, a big developer, come in and buy that land and allow us to utilize that land for the homeless. We build a center in the middle that has a kitchen facility, showers, washrooms, and a facility where the kids can go to classes. We take the homeless, we give them the option to own a used trailer-style camper, whatever you want to call it. We buy off the internet for $5,000, $10,000. There's a lot of really nice used ones that are out there. We buy them up in the surrounding community, put them on this acreage, and that's their home.

We also then go from there and put the facility there, which is housed with medical staff and security staff. In order to get into the complex, into the property, they get checked for drugs, for alcohol, they have to stay clean, and they must maintain a job. Because when you stop and you think that every one of these guys is getting minimum $915 a month, or if they're on a disability, $1,400 a month, and we say, let's save that money and send it back to the government, get these people working. It doesn't matter if it's McDonald's, it doesn't matter if it's TransCanada Trust across the street, or the zoo. It doesn't matter where you're working.

Let's get these people working back into society, get them to be a productive part of our community. That makes them feel better about themselves, because most people want somebody to mentor them. Need it in today's world. With the amount of mental health issues, somebody holding your hand, saying, I love you, let's go, let's take this walk, makes a massive difference in their life. It's that simple for me. You know, as a community, we can zone that land. We can do whatever we want with that land. We can utilize it for the betterment of our community. If the ALC has something to say about it, it's not ALC land anyway, it's rock.

But the simple fact is, if we need to do things, we do it for the betterment of our community. Leaving people homeless is absolutely the worst thing to do, because that leads to addiction and alcohol and drug abuse and all of the other issues we're dealing with. Theft is, most of the crime is, as Colin has been saying, you know, 80% of the crime is done by 10% of the criminals. We know that. It's human nature. These guys are trying to survive. But if we give them an opportunity and a way out to buy your own little trailer and we'll subsidize you, we'll get you that trailer, and you can pay me back $200 or $300 a month, it's a working program. You know what? It can't fail.

You come in, you get a full pat down, drugs, alcohol. You come there under the influence of drugs or alcohol, see you later. You've just lost. So we give you the opportunity with education and programs and showers and food, cheaper, easier.

David, before we go, I want to give you an opportunity to look in the camera, talk to the voters of the city of Kelowna, and give them your best pitch why they should put an X beside your name come October 15th.

Well, I think when the voter puts an X beside my name, they're putting an X beside their name. Because I'm there, I'm going to fight for each and every one of them. I'm going to take every opportunity I can to make their life better. Because that's all this is about. I'm here for four years. I'm not a lifetime politician. I'm not a politician at all. What you're going to get is the same guy that lives next door to you, that lives on the street, that's here to fight on your behalf, and get us to the finish line. I'm not going to let politics get in the way of me getting to the finish line. And that's what seems to be what's happening now.

Every time somebody takes a step forward, they take a step to the back or sideways because of politics. Look, politics aside, we need to start making changes. The number one way for us to make the change is to start changing where we start at the top. And when we start changing what we have at the top, and I'm saying all the way down. I'm not just saying the mayor's position has to change. We need, every time we change, we get new life, new blood. If you've been going to the same job for 10 years, you get tired. 15 years, you're getting tired.

If you haven't been able to make a change in 10 or 15 years, and you want to scream about your victories today, those victories that you're accomplishing today should have been done 10 years ago or even four years ago. I'm telling you, get out of the way. Let me come in and show you how it's done.

David Habib, looking for your vote. October 15th for Mayor of Kelowna. David, thanks for coming in and good luck.

Thank you very much. And I will say a vote for me is a vote for change. And if you love the way it is, then stay where you are and don't vote for me. I want to be clear. If everybody's happy, stay where you are. I know you're voting for me, and that's all I hope for.