The two BC Conservative Party candidates in the Kamloops area say they’re looking forward to the election campaign this year.

Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer is running in Kamloops-North Thompson, while Dennis Giesbrecht will be running in Kamloops-Centre.

Stamer says it makes sense that the two candidates work together over the next seven months.

“Its a large area but I believe that together, we can do more,” Stamer said Friday. “I think the fact that we have so much in common in our ridings only makes sense that we would work together as a team, and I’m very excited to work with Dennis in this election campaign.”

Giesbrecht meanwhile noted it is encouraging to see the growth in the BC Conservative Party over the last four years.

“Ward brings a certain level of credibility to our campaign and to our party,” he said.

“We’ve been very fortunate this time. The candidates we’re attracting, we’ve got doctors, we’ve got RCMP officers, we’ve got engineers. It’s really exciting to see where we’re at.”

Stamer said he’ll focus his campaign on three key topics – healthcare, affordability, and highway safety.

“I believe that we’ve got strong policies and we’ll be refining those policies as we go forward,” Stamer said.

Giesbrecht, who also referenced healthcare and affordability, also touched on crime and social issues in the City of Kamloops.

“As far as my campaign goes, I’ve probably got a little easier job than Ward because of things we talked about four years ago,” Giesbrecht said.

“We talked about getting rid of the tax, talked about treatment centre for addictions issues, more work on mental health. The same things I talked about four years ago are orders of magnitude worse than the were four years ago.”

Stamer was first elected as a Councillor in Barriere, and served for 10 years before being elected mayor in 2018. He also sought the federal Conservative nomination in Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, but lost to current MP, Frank Caputo.

Giesbrecht ran for the BC Conservative Party in the current Kamloops-North Thompson riding in the 2020 provincial election He also unsuccessfully ran for a seat on Kamloops City council in 2018 and 2022.

“Ward and Dennis represent the backbone of this region, which has lacked any principled leadership for too long,” BC Conservative Leader, John Rustad said, in a statement.

“It’s time for Kamloops-North Thompson and Kamloops Centre to have common sense conservative representation in the Legislature and I believe these two candidates will make for excellent MLA’s.”

Stamer will be running against incumbent BC United MLA Todd Stone in Kamloops-North Thompson, with the BC NDP and the Green Party yet to nominate candidates.

Giesbrecht will be going up against incumbent BC United MLA Peter Milobar in Kamloops-Centre. Incumbent Councillor Bill Sarai has publicly announced his intention to seek the NDP nomination in the riding, while the Green Party has yet to pick a candidate.

The next provincial election in British Columbia is set for Oct. 19.