Iain Currie, who has been acclaimed as the candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada in the newly-launched riding of Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola/via files
It’s going to be round two for a pair of former Crown Prosecutors in the battle to be a Kamloops representative in the House of Commons.
It’s been confirmed as of late Friday afternoon that Iain Currie will be representing the Liberal Party of Canada in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola.
Currie is taking his third crack at federal office, having run federally for the Green Party in 2019 and again in 2021.
“I wouldn’t call it opportunism. I would call it an opportunity,” said Currie when asked about his decision to switch party affiliation to take another run for Parliament.
“I think lots of us in this country are seeing the angst and fear that’s been brought on by tariffs and Trump and the 51st state nonsense,” said Currie. “I see in the Liberal Party an opportunity to take the steps to turn that around.”
While the riding itself is new as of this year, it was redrawn out of a good portion of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, which had been represented since 2021 and the dissolution of Parliament by Conservative Frank Caputo.
Currie and Caputo were colleagues in the Crown Prosecutors Office in Kamloops before either stepped into politics, with Currie saying that they remain friends to this day.
He says he agrees with Caputo’s position that the campaign itself doesn’t need to get personal.
“I’m not going to take any pokes at Frank,” said Currie. “I am going to take lots of pokes at the ideas that he’s promoting.”
“I have a lot of respect for Frank,” added Currie. “I think his part is putting him into a difficult position.”
Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola candidate Frank Caputo as the incumbent from the riding redrawn out of Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo/via Facebook
As for the issues, Currie says he thinks this campaign is going to come down to affordability.
“Really, the standard of living. I think everyone is concerned about how we guide our economy through treacherous waters that are coming.”
The last time Currie and Caputo went head-to-head politically was 2021 when Caputo was tapped to take over the Conservative banner from Cathy McLeod, who — despite winning just two years earlier in 2019 — decided four terms in Parliament was enough for her.
Caputo would walk away the winner with roughly 43% of the vote.
Currie and the Green’s would finish 5th in that race behind the NDP, Liberal and PPC candidates.
However, this time he steps into a party with a lot deeper pockets, and one which has been riding a wave of momentum since Mark Carney took over from Justin Trudeau as the Prime Minister.
Polling aggregate site 338Canada recently shifted its determination of the Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola from a “safe” riding for the Conservatives to a “Likely” win for Caputo, still putting the odds at 99-1 in favor of a 2nd term.
However, Currie contends if he and the Liberal Party get their ground-game mobilized, there’s an opportunity to swing the riding away from the “incumbent.”
“I think voters in the riding are like people across the country, and I think this is being reflected in the polls,” argued Currie in conversation with Radio NL shortly after the Liberal Party of Canada confirmed he was acclaimed as the candidate, meaning he was unopposed.
“That people see a really stark choice, and a really important choice in this election between two very different visions of Canada at a time of real crisis.”
Thus far the NDP has not confirmed its candidate in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola, nor has the Green Party of Canada.
However, both of those parties do have candidates in the ‘other Kamloops’ riding of Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies.
The NDP is going to be represented by Phaedra Idzan, while the Green Party is going to be represented by Nature Delivered owner/operator Owen Madden.
