If he had lost his first foray into municipal politics in 2008, Kevin Acton would never have looked back and continued on with life as a full-time registered massage therapist.

Instead, Acton topped the councillor polls in the Village of Lumby 16 years ago and began working the two gigs.

Three years later, he ran and became village mayor, a position he has held since for three consecutive municipal votes, including running unopposed in 2014 and 2018, and scoring a decisive victory over a solo opponent in 2022.

Acton then set his sights higher.

In August 2023, he declared his candidacy for the provincial MLA position for the newly created riding of Vernon-Lumby (formerly Vernon-Monashee), running for BC United (formerly the BC Liberal Party), and would win the nomination.

Almost exactly a year later, with the provincial writ looming for the Oct. 19 provincial vote, the province and Acton were stunned when BC United leader Kevin Falcon announced on Aug. 28 the party would suspend its campaign. Falcon encouraged supporters to back John Rustad's BC Conservative Party in a move that drastically changed the political landscape in B.C. less than two months before the vote.

Acton, at the time, said he was willing to run as a B.C. Conservative, "If the opportunity was presented to him." It did not, and he chose to run as an independent candidate.

"This is a lot of work,"  he said of running provincially. "We didn鈥檛 just do it once, we did it twice. At this point, I'm...haggard, When I ran for BC United, it wasn鈥檛 my plan, it was how the stars fell and I always said the only way I'd run for provincial politics is if the stars aligned, and I thought they did with BC United.

"When that fell apart, I felt like I had a duty to the people who already funded and supported me for a middle-right option, so I kept going."

In the election on Saturday, Acton finished third out of four riding candidates, collecting 15.47 per cent of the vote (4,196 votes), despite being the only one of the hopefuls who actually lives in the riding (Incumbent Harwinder Sandhu of the NDP lives in Coldstream, now part of the new 琉璃神社-Lake Country-Coldstream riding).

Sandhu was the MLA-elect Saturday, garnering 11,528 votes (42.5 per cent), finishing less than 400 votes ahead of Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht (11,144 votes, 41.08 per cent), who lives in Kamloops.

Robert Johnson of the BC Libertarian Party with 259 votes (.95 per cent)

His first venture into provincial politics hasn't exactly left Acton wanting more.

"It's not the result we were hoping for. It's tough to take," said Acton to about 60 supporters who gathered Saturday at Okanagan Spirits in Vernon to support Lumby's mayor.

"I was a little bit naive to the fact that big party politics count on big parties, right? There was a ton of money spent in this riding to make sure they got the votes they did."

Asked Saturday night if he would run again provincially, Acton said, "At this time, probably not."

"It'll depend on the outside influences," he said.

Acton was criticized on social media Saturday for running as an independent. He didn't back down when he made it clear he wasn't happy with the Conservative's tactics.

"In my heart, I want to be the guy who says 'May the best person win,' but I can't say I'm not frustrated with what the Conservatives did, dropping a candidate into our riding after not being successful in his own riding," said Acton of Giesbrecht. "He doesn't know us at all here, and has really made no effort to get to know us here.

"Harwinder is committed to the community. She's at every event I go to as mayor. I have a lot of respect for Harwinder."

So yes, it's back to being the mayor of the Village of Lumby for Acton. Back to being the village's representative on the Regional District of North Okanagan board. And back to being the chair of the North Okanagan Columbia Shuswap Regional Hospital District.

"Now that I won't be involved with provincial politics, I might ramp that up, becoming more involved with the region," he said.

Acton has two years left on his latest four-year term at the mayor's helm. It's a job he loves.

"I've got a commitment to Lumby for the next two years, until the next election (Oct. 17, 2026), and I'm definitely going to fill that," he said. "I'm fully committed to the position. I'm still going to go to all of the events. I enjoy celebrating and supporting my community."