Beyond the Politics: Cindy Derkaz, Liberal Party candidate for the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding

Beyond the politics takes an up-close and personal look at the five North Okanagan-Shuswap candidates running in the federal election, October 21.

The purpose of these stories by respected local journalist Josh Winquist is to present the candidate, not party platforms or policies.

Thank you to all the candidates for participating.

The profiles will be published in alphabetical order with one each day from Oct. 7-11.

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Update

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Overdose Prevention

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Profile on Mel Arnold, Conservative (Oct.7)

Profile of Kyle Delfing, People’s Party of Canada (Oct. 8)

Profile of Cindy Derkaz, Liberal (Oct. 9)

Profile of Marc Reinarz, Green Party (Oct. 10)

Profile of Harwinder Sandhu, New Democratic Party (Oct.11)

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Cindy Derkaz stretches out her hand offering up a firm but friendly handshake. Behind her red-and-black-rimmed glasses, the soft look in her eyes matches her large gentle smile.

Standing in the lobby of her downtown Vernon campaign office, the Liberal Party candidate exudes all the confidence of a person well prepared for a long election campaign.

“I’ve been passionate about politics my whole life,” she says when asked why she is running.

It is the usual trope espoused by politicians at all levels on the lead up to an election; however, given her past, one would have a hard time not believing her.

The life-long Shuswap resident can point to a specific moment, when at just 11 years old, her life was sent along this path.

She recalls watching in horror as a catastrophic fire destroyed parts of downtown Salmon Arm, including her parent’s shoe store, Derkaz Shoes.

The smoke had barely cleared when the insurance company and the bank staff turned their backs on the Derkaz family, she says.

“The embers were still warm,” she says of when the insurance adjusters told her dad they were considering coverage denial.

“The day after, [the fire] the bank manager phoned and said that our line of credit had been terminated because we were no longer in business. I remember the trauma in our family because we used that line of credit to buy groceries at Askews Foods.”

Derkaz said that’s when when her father took the big step in hiring a highly-respected lawyer from Vernon.

The gamble paid off, and within a few days, the insurance company confirmed coverage. Money was flowing again and the family was about to be back in business.

“I decided right then and there that I was going to be a lawyer and I was going stand up to bullies. I was going to work in a small town and I was going to represent people who needed help. It probably brings me to where I am today,” Derkaz said.

To this day, when somebody tells Derkaz no, or that she can’t do something, she says, “just watch me.”

The ‘just watch me’ line was made somewhat famous in the 1970s by then Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau of the Liberal Party.

“I’ve used it a few times,” Derkaz says with a Cheshire-cat smile. “I am determined.”

She comes by that determination honestly. Her father, as she recalls, was a natural-born leader who didn’t take no for an answer either.

“In a lot of ways, I am like my dad,” she says while adding that when in the face of adversity her father would always just hit the table and say with positivity ‘We are up and at ’em. [Let’s] put that behind us and we are going to move on.'”

The ‘up and at ’em’ attitude passed on by her father is undoubtedly why Derkaz is again running for elected office.

For those who might recall, she was the Liberal candidate in the 2015 federal election, finishing runner-up to the Conservative candidate, Mel Arnold.

Arnold received 39 per cent of the votes while Derkaz had 29 per cent.

When asked what her father would think of her today and what he would think of her being a politician, Derkaz pauses, leans back in her chair and slowly closes her eyes.

The question hangs in the air.

“I think he would be very pleased,” she says as she opens her eyes. “He would be very proud of me. He always believed that I could do anything I wanted to and he encouraged me. He sat me down when I was in my early teens and said, ‘Look. you can do anything any boy in your class can do. The future is yours.’ So, I think he would be very proud of me.”

Derkaz’s father passed away 12 years ago; he never got to see her as a politician.

“I think I won the lottery,” Derkaz says. “I had parents that obviously loved me and had great aspirations for me, great values, supportive, and good friends. I am lucky.”

When Derkaz was not in school or studying she would spend her time between helping to stock the shelves at her parent’s shoe store and riding horses.

“I think I came out of the womb loving horses,” she jokes.

From a young age, Derkaz would relentlessly bug her parents to buy her a horse.

Never ceasing in this pursuit, it was suggested by Derkaz’s maternal grandmother that the young girl would quit asking for a horse if she only knew how large and stinky horses can be.

Her parents agreed that was a good idea, and at the age of nine, during the summer break from school, Derkaz was sent to a local farm to learn the ‘realities’ of raising horses.

As Derkaz says, the plan backfired on her parents and instead of coming home in a few days, like they had imagined would happen, she asked to stay for a few weeks.

A few weeks turned into a few more weeks.

During that time Derkaz fell in love with a horse named Diamond, who she says was a “great big draft horse of questionable breeding,” but her buddy nonetheless.

“I said to the farmer, ‘How much would it take to buy Diamond?’ and he said, ‘Well, how much do you have?'”
Derkaz says she handed over her life savings, all $150 to the farmer.

“So, I went home and announced that Diamond was arriving Thursday.

The first call was to my grandmother to say, ‘Thanks to you and your terrific ideas, we now have a horse in the family,'” she recalls with a laugh.

Even in Derkaz’s earliest years, her ‘just watch me’ attitude was apparent.

She has never lost her love of horses. Her passion is so great it is infectious.

Her husband, Don, who did not initially share in her love of horses, surprised Derkaz by taking riding lessons so he could one day share in her great love.

“I sensed that he had nothing to do with horses, so it was totally his initiative. We were planning a trip to Argentina and Chile, and I would say that ‘When I am there I want to go riding and ride in the mountains,’ and he just quietly, as a surprise, arranged riding lessons so he could come with me.”

Derkaz’s brief, but an unabashed glimpse into her personal life really is a by-product of what she calls her greatest quality: Honesty.

“I am an honest and authentic person,” she says. “That I believe is my strength.”

She once again puts her honesty on display when she is asked to recall a time in her life when she had to overcome a challenge. Instead of pointing to the obvious and easy answer of saying her 2015 election loss, Derkaz shows her vulnerable side.

Her hesitation in answering the question makes clear that what she is about to share is deeply personal.

It goes back to when Derkaz and her husband were getting ready to do some travelling together.

The big decisions had been made: Derkaz had sold her law practice and Don had quit his job at a bank — the couple was leaving indefinitely to work with refugees in Guatemala.

With plans in motion, just days before they were set to leave, Derkaz had learned that her mother’s cancer had come back.

“I am the only child, and she was terminal,” Derkaz says.

Her words imply there was never any question to what decision had to be made.

“We realized the journey was a different journey, it was the journey we were going to take with my mom… So we did that.”

She and Don scrapped their plans to travel and spent a year tending to her mother as she died.

“I think what I learned was accepting that at 63, your vibrant mother was going to die; being with her while she died.

So, there is a challenge. The acceptance of that was my challenge. Not to be angry. Sixty-three is still too young.”

She takes a deep breath. There is a long pause as she tries to compose herself.

“Now, I am going to cry,” she says.

Vulnerability is a quality not often associated with politicians, especially in an election cycle. The moment is real and honest.

Derkaz removes her red-and-black-rimmed glasses and wipes the tears from her eyes.

“What you see is what you get,” she says, and again offers up her gentle smile.

Voters across Canada head to the polls October 21.