MLA for Boundary-Similkameen from 2020 to 2024, running for the BC NDP in the same district.
Roly Russell is the BC NDP candidate in Boundary-Similkameen. He was the district’s MLA from 2020 to 2024 and Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development. In 2024 he lost the district to Conservative Donegal Wilson, with 10,497 votes (42.56 percent) to her 11,935 (48.39 percent). On September 25, 2026 he said he is running to protect local jobs, lower costs and give rural communities the health care and services they need.
A researched record of Roly Russell’s 2026 candidacy and his term as MLA for Boundary-Similkameen from 2020 to 2024: 9 commitments, 17 dated actions and 18 public statements, with 11 news items.
On dates without a confirmed appearance the public schedule is unknown; the candidate may still have activities that day. This static page changes only when its research is updated.
01 / Introduction
About Roly Russell
Elections BC lists Roly Russell as the BC NDP candidate for MLA in Boundary-Similkameen for the general election of October 24, 2026. The party’s own candidate list also names him for the district. Castanet reported on September 24, 2026 that he had announced he would run.
He was elected MLA for Boundary-Similkameen in 2020 with 10,500 votes (49.85 percent), according to the Elections BC statement of votes. The legislature lists him as a member of the 42nd Parliament for the BC NDP. Government cabinet releases of November 26, 2020 and December 7, 2022 name him Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development.
In the 2024 election he received 10,497 votes (42.56 percent). Donegal Wilson of the Conservative Party won with 11,935 votes (48.39 percent). voche.me did not find his name in the legislature’s 2026 index of speeches or its 2026 index of recorded votes on 2026-09-30.
Before 2020 he was the director for Area D, Rural Grand Forks, on the board of the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary. The regional district’s board highlights, as the Castlegar Source republished them in December 2020, say he served six years, two of them as chair. His legislature biography says he has a PhD in ecology, ran an organic farm, and helped lead the response to the 2018 flood in Grand Forks. The biography is his own account, and voche.me has not checked those points with outside records.
In the legislature he spoke for a new emergency management law in 2023, and in 2024 for the budget and for motions on health care workers and on housing costs. voche.me has not contacted the campaign.
Published positions and selected commitments, separated by election cycle. Status labels describe the evidence reviewed, not a numerical score or a complete audit of the platform. Council approval is different from delivery.
9 commitments shown · Checked Sep 30
2026 · EconomyCampaign pledge
Protect local jobs
In the BC NDP announcement of September 25, 2026, as reported by Castanet, Russell said he is running with the party to protect local jobs. His campaign page says he wants an economy that works for everyone in rural B.C.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
The statement names him as the speaker. It names no measure, no number of jobs, no cost and no date.
What still needs checking
Which measures would he support to protect jobs in the district, and how many jobs do they cover?
Argue firmly for the region and work with other parties
Castanet reported on September 24, 2026 a statement from his campaign social media account. In it he said the region needs an MLA who will argue firmly when that is needed and work with members of other parties when that gets more done, and that he has done both.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
A statement of how he would do the job. It names no measure on a scored issue, so it earns no score. voche.me read the statement only as Castanet quoted it.
What still needs checking
Which measures would he work on with members of other parties?
The BC NDP platform page says the party is delivering 80,000 homes now, with an estimated 300,000 more over the next ten years. The page does not name Russell.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Russell on housing. In April 2024 he spoke in the legislature for a motion on housing costs; that entry is under dated actions.
What still needs checking
Does Russell name a housing measure for the district during the campaign?
The BC NDP platform page lists protecting people from climate impacts as one of its headings. The page does not name Russell.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
Party text. voche.me found no 2026 statement by Russell with a climate, wildfire or flood measure. His 2024 answer on the subject is listed below as earlier material.
What still needs checking
Does Russell name a climate, wildfire or flood measure during the campaign?
Reduce disaster risk and give communities more control of land and watershed planning (2024 campaign)
In written answers to Black Press in October 2024, Russell said the government had rebuilt the emergency law around preparing for, reducing, responding to and recovering from disasters, and had committed to giving communities more control of land use and watershed planning.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
This is from his 2024 campaign. No 2026 page found by voche.me repeats it. It gives no cost and no date.
Keep and hire health care workers in the district (2024 campaign)
In the same 2024 answers he said the plan for health care staffing has four parts: keeping workers, changing how the system is organised, hiring, and training. He said the whole district was now covered by payments that reward health workers for staying in rural places.
Evidence & next checks
Evidence reviewed
This is from his 2024 campaign. No 2026 page found by voche.me repeats it. A government release of August 13, 2024 says the payments were extended to Oliver, Osoyoos and Okanagan Falls.
What still needs checking
Does his 2026 campaign name a health staffing measure for the district?
Election results, appointments and speeches in debate from his 2020 to 2024 term, taken from Elections BC, the legislature and government releases. A speech for a bill or a motion is listed under its issue. A government program is the government’s: it is listed here where a release quotes him, and it earns him no score.
Elected
Elected MLA for Boundary-Similkameen
Won the district with 10,500 votes (49.85 percent). Petra Veintimilla of the BC Liberal Party had 7,735 votes (36.72 percent).
Scope, limits and sources
The 2020 general election was held on October 24, 2020. An election result earns no score.
Named Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development
The cabinet release of November 26, 2020 lists him as Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development, under the ministry then responsible for forests and rural development.
Spoke for the bill in the main debate (second reading)
Spoke for the Forest Amendment Act, 2021 (Bill 28)
He said the changes to forest law were meant to support forest workers and rural towns, and that clearer rules on payment for lost timber harvesting rights were an important improvement.
Scope, limits and sources
The transcript names him as the speaker. voche.me did not open the record of the vote on the bill.
Spoke for the bill in the main debate (second reading)
Spoke for the Emergency and Disaster Management Act (Bill 31)
He supported the bill that replaced the Emergency Program Act. He said that as chair of the regional district in the 2018 flood he had no law or guide for recovery, and he read out sections that let a local authority declare a recovery period.
Scope, limits and sources
The transcript names him as the speaker. voche.me did not open the record of the vote on the bill.
Spoke for Motion 20 on training and hiring health care workers
The motion asked the House to support the government’s work to train, recruit and retain more health care professionals. He spoke for it and listed training programs, a new medical school and a new payment model for family doctors.
Scope, limits and sources
The transcript names him as a speaker for the motion. Another member moved to adjourn the debate.
Spoke for Motion 5 on housing costs and real estate speculators
The motion asked the House to put people looking for a home they can afford ahead of real estate speculators and investors. He spoke for it and listed provincial housing measures, including limits on rent increases and the tax on empty homes.
Scope, limits and sources
The transcript names him as a speaker for the motion. Another member moved to adjourn the debate.
Provincial money for a dike and drainage in Grand Forks
A government release quotes him as MLA and Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development as a provincial fund paid for a 714-metre dike and a 505-metre drainage system in Grand Forks.
Scope, limits and sources
A government program is the government’s. The release quotes him without naming him as the person who decided the funding, so it earns no score.
Provincial money for a wood products plant in Okanagan Falls
A government release quotes him as the local MLA as the Province gave up to $7 million to Mercer Mass Timber, a maker of large wood building parts. The release says the plant supports 28 local jobs.
Scope, limits and sources
A government program is the government’s. The job count is the release’s own figure. It earns no score.
Temporary support for B.C. wineries after the 2024 grape loss
A government release quotes him as Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development as the Province let wineries use grapes from outside B.C. for wine made from the 2024 harvest.
Scope, limits and sources
A government program is the government’s. The release quotes him without naming him as the person who decided the measure, so it earns no score.
Payments to keep health workers in Oliver, Osoyoos and Okanagan Falls
A government release quotes him as the local MLA as the Province extended its rural payments for health workers to the three towns. The release says 200 employees could receive them, a figure it gives as an estimate.
Scope, limits and sources
A government program is the government’s. It earns no score.
Support for tree fruit growers after the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative closed
A government release quotes him as the local MLA as the Province arranged for growers to be paid early for past harvests, with money the release estimates at $4 million.
Scope, limits and sources
A government program is the government’s. It earns no score.
Provincial grant for the Penticton community safety table
A government release quotes him as the local MLA as the Province gave Penticton a $30,000 grant for a program where police, health and social service workers meet to connect people at risk with services.
Scope, limits and sources
A government program is the government’s. It earns no score.
Read original statements and reporting, or open the publisher’s video. A summary of a speech is labelled separately from a full recording.
Statement
Statement on winning the 2020 BC NDP nomination
The Grand Forks Gazette quotes a press release and reports that he named forest health, a strong economy, housing costs, climate change and support for local communities as his priorities.
Interview on his appointment as Parliamentary Secretary
He told the Grand Forks Gazette that the government needs to look at how its programs and policy affect rural places, and that he would use his regional district work and his science training.
Interview on housing for people evacuated by the Princeton flood
He told the Similkameen Spotlight that people evacuated in the November 2021 flood would not be left homeless, and that he was working with two provincial bodies on the town’s request for temporary housing.
Comments on the delayed apology to the Doukhobor community
He told the Grand Forks Gazette that the apology was delayed so that community members and the government could prepare, and that it would come in the new year.
Remarks on accepting the 2024 nomination in Osoyoos
The Times Chronicle reports he said he was honoured to have the nomination, and spoke about support for people in farming, water and health care and about building community.
He answered on climate and disasters, on voting when his view differs from his party’s, and on shortages of medical staff. The paper says his was the only reply received by its deadline.
The Grand Forks Gazette quotes a statement in which he said the result was not the one he hoped for and that the work of building communities continues.
He told Castanet he was proud of work on medical travel and on payments to keep health workers in rural places, and that he was still deciding what to do next.
Castanet quotes a statement from his campaign social media account. He said the election came sooner than many expected, and that the region needs an MLA who argues firmly and also works with other parties.
Castanet quotes him saying he grew up in Grand Forks, helped the community respond to the 2018 flood, and is running to protect local jobs, lower costs and give rural communities the health care and services they need.
Records are labelled by type, including official findings, civil proceedings and political disputes where applicable. Each entry identifies the response found in the sources and the latest status verified for this page.
No reviewed entries have been added to this section yet. This is a research gap, not a finding about the candidate.
News coverage / Original publishers
Read the reporting
A dated reading list from independent publishers. The headings below are voche.me summaries; follow each link for the original article, context and any corrections.
Reporting
Grand Forks Gazette
Named president of the Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments
A submitted report says he became president after two years as vice-president, and that he was then the Area D director and chair of the regional district.
Sources checked September 30, 2026. Official records establish decisions; campaign material establishes stated positions; reporting adds investigation and context. None alone establishes every claim.
Castanet refuses automated reads (HTTP 403), so its five reports used here were read as copies saved by the Internet Archive. For a sixth Castanet page, a 2024 candidate profile, voche.me found no saved copy, so it was not read. His statements of September 24 and 25, 2026 were read only as Castanet quoted them: voche.me did not find the party statement on the first page of the BC NDP releases list, and his Facebook, Instagram and X pages (rr4mla) showed a sign-in page or only a page title to a direct read, so no post from them is used. His campaign page holds a short biography written by the party and the party's six headings. It lists no events and no measures of his own. Its claims about his part in the 2018 flood recovery and the 2021 flood recovery are the campaign's. The legislature's data lists no roles for him. His post as Parliamentary Secretary for Rural Development comes from the cabinet releases of November 26, 2020 and December 7, 2022, and government releases from 2024 still use the title. An official record of the date the post ended was not found. Seven transcripts from 2021 to 2024 were opened. The other speeches in the four yearly indexes, including the 2022 debates, were not read, and his recorded votes from 2021 to 2024 were not read. Whether each bill he spoke for passed was not checked. His years as a regional district director are taken from a regional district committee document of 2018 and from the district's own board highlights as two news sites republished them. The board minutes that record his election as chair were not opened. His past posts as president of the Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments, chair of the Grand Forks Credit Union board and member of the Union of BC Municipalities executive come from his legislature biography and local reporting, and were not checked with those bodies. His doctorate was not checked with the university. voche.me found no source on his work between the 2024 election and September 2026. The address rolyrussell.ca shows a page from the company that registered it, with no content of his, and rolyrussellmla.ca did not answer. On 2026-09-30 his was the only name under Boundary-Similkameen on the Elections BC list. Castanet reports that Donegal Wilson is running for the Conservative Party; nominations close at 1 p.m. on October 3, 2026. The 2024 campaign spending figures come from a news report on Elections BC filings; the filings were not opened. No 2026 all-candidates meeting, endorsement or 2026 campaign finance record was found on this date. The questionnaire has not been sent.
Research status
What voche.me has checked
Evidence reviewed on 2026-09-30: the Elections BC candidate list and key dates page, the 2020 and 2024 statements of votes, the legislature’s member record, its speech indexes for 2021 to 2024 and its 2026 speech and vote indexes, seven transcripts from 2021 to 2024, eight government releases, a 2018 regional district committee document, his BC NDP campaign page, the party’s candidate list, releases page and platform page, and reporting from Castanet, the Grand Forks Gazette, the Similkameen Spotlight, the Times Chronicle, My Grand Forks Now, The Nelson Daily and the Castlegar Source.
His 2026 commitments come from two statements that Castanet quoted on September 24 and 25, 2026. His campaign page holds party text and no measures of his own, and his social media pages could not be read without signing in. Sections with no entry record that voche.me found nothing on this date.
Director for Area D, Regional District of Kootenay Boundary
Listed as a director in the regional district’s committee minutes of April 2018. The district’s board highlights, republished by the Castlegar Source in December 2020, say he served six years, two of them as chair.
Proposed questions for a future interview. They have not been sent to the candidate, and no answers have been supplied.
Which measures would you ask the government to take to protect jobs in Boundary-Similkameen, and at what cost?
No response has been submitted.
Which costs would you lower for families in the district, and by how much?
No response has been submitted.
Which health services in the district’s smaller towns would you ask the Province to add or keep open, and by when?
No response has been submitted.
Have your own question?
Ask Roly Russell directly. We send it to the campaign, and publish the reply here if we get one.
05 / About this page
Questions about this page
Facts voche.me can state about Roly Russell's page itself, answered directly rather than left blank.
Is this an official page for Roly Russell?
No. This page is researched by voche.me from public sources, listed below, and is separate from Roly Russell's own campaign.
What party is Roly Russell running with?
Roly Russell is running for MLA with BC NDP.
Does Roly Russell currently hold public office?
Not according to this profile. voche.me has not listed a current public office for Roly Russell.
How many sources does this Roly Russell profile cite?
This profile lists 8 sourced references, each with the date voche.me checked it, in the Sources section below.
Why do some questions on Roly Russell's page show no answer?
The "Questions & answers" section on this page lists questions voche.me would put to Roly Russell in a future interview. They have not been sent yet, so the page says plainly that no answer has been supplied instead of leaving the section blank.
When is the election Roly Russell is running in?
The 2026 British Columbia election, including the MLA race, is decided on October 24, 2026.
06 / Candidate contributions
Space for campaign updates
No campaign updates yet
Announcements, event details and messages can be added here, with their source and publication date. No campaign submission has been added.
