Holmes has served as a District of Summerland councillor for the past eight years, as director of the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) for the past four years, and director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) for the past two years.
He has been council liaison to the Summerland Chamber of Commerce, the Summerland Arts Council, and the Summerland Secondary School youth council. He represented council on the Downtown Neighbourhood Plan Task Force, Cultural Plan Task Force, and the Chamber of Commerce’s Task Force on Affordable Housing.
“I think I’ve proven myself on council over the years and have shown I know how to listen, know how to question, and know how to get things done,” says Holmes.
“I have a full understanding of all the issues facing the community, not just in certain areas of interest. As mayor, I’ll be able to hit the ground running and provide the leadership that Summerland needs.”
Holmes’ extensive community involvement includes on-going efforts to provide a local response to the global refugee crisis. He is founding chair of the Summerland Refugee Sponsorship Group, which has sponsored refugee families from Syria, Eritrea, and South Sudan. He is former co-chair of the South Okanagan-Similkameen Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) Council, former vice-president of South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Services (SOICS), and he helped organize this year’s ‘Slava Ukraini’ fundraiser for war victims in Ukraine.
In recognition of Holmes’ humanitarian work, the Summerland Rotary Club named him a Paul Harris Fellow, the highest honour that Rotary can give to a member of the community.
Holmes is also a certified tennis instructor and recipient of a Tennis Canada award of excellence for developing the game at the community level. He developed the youth program at Lakeshore Racquets Centre and has coached hundreds of Summerland youth through after-school lessons, summer camps, leagues and tournaments, and the Summerland Secondary School tennis team. Holmes settled in Summerland in 2004 to raise his family following a storied international career in business and journalism. He was a global expert on ‘egovernment’ and early advocate of the use of Internet technology in the public sector. Based in Paris and London, he worked for Microsoft Corp for 10 years and authored the book, eGov: e-Business Strategies for Government (2001), an international business bestseller that has been translated into seven languages.
He has been a company director, magazine publisher, newspaper editor, foreign correspondent, and a CBC radio reporter. His first book, Northerners: Profiles of People in the Northwest Territories (1989), is based on interviews he conducted early in his journalism career in the Canadian North. Holmes has visited more than 90 countries and every province and territory in Canada. He has a degree in journalism and political science from Carleton University in Ottawa.