John Rustad’s BC Conservative Party has unveiled its full platform ahead of this Saturday’s provincial election.
It begins with a message from Rustad saying: “As I present my platform to you, Common Sense Change for BC, I want you to know this is more than a list of promises — it represents who I am, and how I will lead our province as your Premier.
Politics was never my ambition. I wanted to focus on running my business and supporting jobs in the community I grew-up in, until the NDP made it impossible to continue in BC. I then realized that common sense leadership cannot be taken for granted, and decided to enter the arena.”
Both Kamloops North-Thompson candidate Ward Stamer and Kamloops Centre candidate Peter Milobar say they believe it is a good plan for British Columbians. “Well, I think it’s the overall variety of tax breaks, coupled with the fact that we are committed to increasing spending on things like health care and getting better results,” says Milobar. “But it’s really about, you know, showing people that there will be a move towards more fiscal discipline, not relying strictly on on tax dollars, but also about how we’re going to grow the economy and get the private sector and investment wanting to locate back into British Columbia, to strengthen our economy that way.”
Milobar is running for the BC Conservative’s after Kevin Falcon and the BC United Party decided to pull out of the race. The former opposition finance critic was asked whether he was hearing any concerns about the timing of the platform release given that it just a few days ahead of the official voting day. “The only people I’ve heard from are from the punditry or hardcore NDP supporters, but I think you know, really, what at its core we’re hearing from people is that our healthcare is in a crisis and it needs changing, that affordability is worse than ever before, and and that there’s a huge amount of worry about crime and disorder on our streets. And so, you know, I think people are a little less worried about the granular side of it, the more so looking for the party that has some plans to actually address those types of issues, and we very clearly do.”
Ward Stamer meanwhile, says there are a number of items in the platform that he is excited to bring to Victoria including expanding investment in highways. The plan specifically mentioned the Red Bridge replacement, but there are a number of other concerns that Stamer has been very outspoken on throughout his time as the Mayor of Barrière.
“One of the main things is that you look at our capital funding for highways, that’s something we totally have to review, because even like on Highway five, we’ve got a fraction of the improvements over the last 20 years that we should have been having under this government. I mean, $2 billion in the last 20 years on Highway 1 and only $21 million on Highway 5. That’s totally unacceptable, particularly for the people that live in in the North Thompson.”
Stamer says his biggest message to voters is to get out and make your voice heard. “I’m really looking forward to having conversations with everybody in the region. We know that advanced polling has been strong. We know that advanced polling is out there again today, on the 15th and 16th, all heading up to election day on Saturday the 19th. The best thing I can say to people is, please get out and vote. That is the most democratic thing that we can do in our, in our, in our government. Please make the opportunity and vote.”
