Canadian Man Who Said He Had No Idea What He Was Doing Wins With Bizarre 'Just Trying To Pay My Rent' Campaign

A Kelowna entrepreneur who joked to voters that he did not enjoy politics and was not qualified for office has won a seat on the British Columbia city's council.

Brady Rogers, 33, finished fourth of 37 candidates in the municipal election on Saturday 17 October 2026, according to unofficial results. His campaign signs carried slogans including 'Just trying to pay my rent' and 'I barely want to do this', and went viral online.

Rogers has since said the self-mockery was tongue-in-cheek and that he takes the job seriously.

'Am I Qualified? Also No'

Rogers received 12,635 votes in preliminary results, placing him fourth in a race for eight council seats, according to the City of Kelowna. He finished behind Gord Lovegrove (15,462), Davis Kyle (14,822) and Kevin Aaron Kraft (13,505). Kelowna elects its councillors at large, so the top eight finishers win.

His campaign website opened with a disarming pitch. 'Do I enjoy politics? No. Do I know what I'm doing? No. But am I qualified? Also no.'

The signs followed the same theme. One read 'Brady Rogers for Mayor' before clarifying: 'Just kidding. City Council.' Another said 'Just trying to pay my rent'. A third, 'I barely want to do this', carried a note that he is under 60, while a fourth promised 'Don't worry, I'll fix everything', with the disclaimer 'terms and conditions apply'.

The signs spread widely on social media, drawing the attention of American influencer Mandi Jung and generating more than 100,000 views and media interview requests, according to Dexerto. A post about his win by Dexerto on X had drawn more than 2.1 million views and about 109,000 likes when checked on Tuesday 20 October.

Engineer, Recycler and Reluctant Candidate

Behind the jokes is a more conventional CV. According to his campaign website, Rogers was born in Williams Lake, moved to Kelowna at the age of 10 and graduated from UBC Okanagan in 2015. He worked for four years as a robotic automation engineer before co-founding The Rogerie with his wife, a business that turns locally recovered plastic waste into new products.

The company started in his laundry room in 2019 and now has a storefront in downtown Kelowna, Castanet reported. Rogers built a social media following over the summer by documenting a public-access dispute over the Hotel Eldorado waterfront boardwalk and pressing the city for records and answers.

He told Castanet in September that he was not enthusiastic about becoming a politician. 'I don't like meetings, I don't like having to be certain places at certain times, and I'm allergic to stuffy offices,' he said. 'But unfortunately, I happen to like Kelowna, and I think I can help do some good.'

He framed his campaign around the idea that good answers start with good questions. They included whether growth benefits ordinary residents, whether developers pay a fair share of the infrastructure their projects require and what serious public transit could do for household affordability.

He also asked how government should protect the public interest when private property rights and public rights conflict. 'We built them, we can question them, and when they stop working for us, we can change them,' he said of the city's systems.

Rogers also listed housing affordability, homelessness and the challenges facing small businesses as priorities. 'I want to understand how our city works, ask who it's working for, and help make sure the answer is all of us,' he said.

'Tongue-In-Cheek'

Before the vote, Rogers told Global News that he was being 'a little bit tongue-in-cheek' about his lack of qualifications. He said he had 'never been a politician' but had relevant experience, according to Dexerto. He told Castanet he is 'really good at solving problems' and also cares about problems, which sometimes makes him feel obliged to help.

Rogers finished 1,165 votes ahead of Les Bellamy, who took the eighth and final seat in the preliminary count with 11,470 votes, Culture Alberta reported. According to the outlet, Davis Kyle, who finished second, is 29, and five of the eight seats went to newcomers.

In an interview with NewsNation, Rogers argued that leaders should be able to admit they do not have every answer. 'You don't know everything, and that doesn't mean you're not going to figure it out,' he said.

Mayor Tom Dyas was returned to office with 19,451 votes in the preliminary count, 969 ahead of former MP Ron Cannan. The city estimated turnout at 31 per cent of eligible voters, with 38,970 ballots cast.

On election night, Rogers posted a low-key selfie at 11.30pm saying he guessed he was on council now and would be there for the next four years. In a later Instagram video, he said he looked forward to doing 'some genuine good'. He told the Kelowna Daily Courier he had not taken the campaign lightly and wanted to 'lend a new perspective' on council.

The results remain unofficial until the chief election officer declares them, which the city expects to happen by Wednesday 21 October.

If they are confirmed, the candidate who barely wanted the job is poised to serve a four-year term on Kelowna city council.