Beyond the Politics: Kyle Delfing, People’s Party of Canada 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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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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“Growing up poor is a privilege.”

Kyle Delfing unintentionally leaves his words to hang in the air for a moment while he readjusts himself.

The 33-year-old is sitting on a couch in the basement of a Vernon area coffee shop talking life, business, and of course politics. After all, he is running in the upcoming federal election under the banner of the People’s Party of Canada.

Again comfortable, Delfing continues his thought.

“Growing up poor is a privilege. It honestly is,” he says, picking his words back up.

“Those lessons, I tell you, it is the greatest privilege in the world. There were hardships, don’t get me wrong. But growing up poor, you’ve got nothing to lose. You can walk through life and understand that money isn’t everything.”

In his words you hear conviction; no pride, no shame, just matter of fact. Delfing presents his statement on growing up poor as just his truth.

“You are never scared of losing it all, so you are able to move forward faster,” he says. “Fear is still there, don’t get me wrong, it is in the back of the mind and in the belly like anyone else. But you learn to overcome it because when you are poor there are certain things that you need to do to overcome it.”

Delfing was raised by a single mother on the North End of Winnipeg — a notoriously impoverished area of the city.

Delfing lived with his mother and aunt and said while it was simple, it was all they could afford.

“We are German,” Delfing says proudly. “You stand on your own two feet. Nobody is going to let you fail, but at the same time, we’re proud people. We don’t ask our parents for help. They will offer it, but we won’t ask.”

Through his mom, Delfing learned one of the lessons he governs his life by: You do what you have to do.

Delfing remembers even at the age of six he knew to work hard.

He would go to the German Society of Winnipeg with his grandfather, and once there, Delfing would clean up tables.

“I would start bussing. I knew that if I bused, they would tip me and if they tipped me, I swear, I could make a hundred bucks in a night at the age of six,” he said.

His grandfather would always tell him he was destined to be one of two things: A businessman or a politician.

“The thing is, there are two rules in life,” Delfing explains.

“One, you are responsible for your own happiness. Two, you can do anything you want. You just have to apply yourself.

“That’s it. Those are the two rules. Number two is going to maintain number one and without number one, you’ll never have number two. You’ll never be able to apply yourself if you are not happy.”

When Delfing was just 17, he got a job with a moving company. He had always wanted to be a truck driver, but in his words, “nobody will hire a 17-year-old kid to drive a five-ton except for a moving company.”

The job took him across the country.

For almost 10 years, on and off, Delfing travelled from coast to coast as well as through the United States. As he says, he was educated in life while working as a truck driver.

“On the road, you get into conversations and it goes everywhere. The conversations go from politics to religion to love to everything else and right back to politics again, and you start all over,” Delfing says.

“It was life experience. You learn a lot. There are so many more opportunities to expand yourself because you are not in the same group of friends. You are never in the same part of the world for very long. You’ll always have a different perspective on your problem that day. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the road, I wouldn’t know as much about myself as I do.”

Driving truck also educated him about the country.

“It is diverse. There are many different problems, and they might be all the same but they are completely different solutions required,” he says.

Delfing’s passion for driving comes through when he talks about his time on the road.

“Never do it for the money. Do something you enjoy. Do something you love. If you find something you love, the money will most likely follow. And if it doesn’t, don’t worry about it. If you are provided for everything is fine.”

It was on the road driving where Delfing was originally inspired to run for political office.

He and a colleague were moving a family’s belongings to Ottawa.

While driving through the small town of Wawa, Ontario Delfing heard the leader of the People’s Party, Maxime Bernier, speak on the radio about creating this new federal party. The words resonated with him.

“I would say, ‘If I am ever a man of power, I’m going to start the People’s Party of Canada,’” Delfing recalls. “I’d said that for years. It was kind of weird, I hadn’t been in Ottawa for 10 years, and I was down there when Max did this.”

Delfing says when they arrived in Ottawa and finished unloading the truck, he headed down to Parliament Hill. It was late, the middle of the night, nobody was around. As he travelled along the Rideau Canal, he got a phone call from his fiancée, Amanda.

“Amanda called and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m just behind Parliament Hill right now.’ And she said, ‘You’re checking out your new office, are you?” Delfing says with a laugh.

“I just hung out there for a bit and decided then that I would do it. It was the right party, right name, right man.”

When asked why he feels he is the right person to run for office, he presents his past as his qualifications.

“I have been able to live many different lives in a short period of time. So when people come to me with their problems, I’ll be able to understand them better than the next person who has had the same lifestyle their entire life.”

Whether it was working as a driver, a logger, or in an office, you get the sense Delfing worked hard for every dollar that has ever come his way.

A self-made man, Delfing is the owner and operator of Hugo’s Moving, a North-Okanagan based moving company. He named the company after his German Shepard, who is no longer around.

At the time, Delfing and his fiancée lived in Vernon for about a year. The year earlier the couple had moved out west from Winnipeg, looking for a change.

He found a job pumping concrete.

Things were going well for the couple until the company Delfing was working for was sold. The new owners wanted to use their guys only and Delfing was let go.

While he was able to find work pumping for another company, he was soon told there wasn’t enough work for him and to consider looking for a new job.

The way Delfing saw it, he had two choices: go out and create a job, or move back to Winnipeg.

“I was not moving back to Winnipeg,” he says with a laugh.

Having worked in all aspects of the moving industry since he was 17, Delfing was confident he could build a moving company in Vernon.

So, with just $380 collectively to their names in 2014, he took a leap of faith and convinced his fiancée to let him start Hugo’s Moving.

Amanda gave him one month. If he didn’t have the company up and running within 30 days, they would be moving back to Winnipeg for work.

“We took the $380 and put $100 aside for the month’s food. What you get for $100 is Kraft Dinner and hot dogs,” he says with a laugh.

He jokes, but his leap of faith and hard work paid off. In less than a year, Delfing grew his moving company from not even owning a truck to employing 11 people. It’s still going strong today.

“Hugo’s Moving started out with nothing, paycheque to paycheque, like everybody else. That’s life,” he says with a smile.

“Experience is the best teacher. You can’t buy it at Wal-Mart.”

Voters across Canada head to the polls Oct. 21.