The Mayor of Kamloops says it doesn’t matter which party forms the next B.C. government, what matters is that the party that does follows through on a promise for cancer care in the Kamloops area.

Both the NDP and the Liberals have promised a new cancer care centre, and Ken Christian says he is pleased by that.

“What we want to see is results. Both major parties are committing to that and that is something that we would hold them true to if they form government,” he told NL News.

“The terrible mistake from the 1990’s (when the NDP under Mike Harcourt promised and then reneged on a cancer centre in the city but built one in Kelowna) lives on in infamy so I would be hard pressed to think that a political party would back away from a commitment like that.”

Christian, who is also the chair of the Thompson Regional Hospital District, says radiation oncology is something that has been lacking in the Kamloops area for several years, and a new cancer centre would mean no trips to Kelowna or the Lower Mainland for treatment.

“Certainly chemotherapy is delivered here regularly and minor cancer surgeries are performed here,” he added. “The real missing piece is radiation therapy and for that you need linear accelerators and you need a radiation oncologist and those have been kind of hard to come by.”

“It would appear from the announcements that irrespective of who wins the election, that is something that is going to be coming our way.”

On Tuesday, the BC Liberal candidates Todd Stone and Peter Milobar announced a $5 million plan to install two linear accelerators for cancer treatment at Royal Inland Hospital. its as they say two out of five linear accelerators in Kelowna are almost exclusively used by people from the Thompson-Cariboo-Shuswap.

The following day, NDP Leader John Horgan announced a cancer centre for Kamloops as part of a 10-year cancer care plan –  an announcement which local candidates Sadie Hunter and Anna Thomas say they are delighted by.

Election day is on October 24.