Conservative Party Leader hopeful makes his case in the Cariboo

Quesnel and Williams Lake were hosts to one of the seven BC Conservative Party leader hopefuls.

Peter Milobar, Kamloops Centre MLA, made a stop at a restaurant in Quesnel’s downtown to meet BC Conservative Party members and potentially secure more memberships for his leadership campaign before the April 18 deadline.

“ I think what’s become even more evident, as we all know, I’m from Kamloops, a resource community in and of itself, that there’s a massive disconnect with Victoria, even more so now than before, with resource communities in the interior and the north. I think that provides me a bit of strength in this race,” Milobar, a former mayor of Kamloops, said.

“ Being the candidate that does actually understand that and also has a seat in the legislature, I think I could be able to, not just press the government, but also be able to enact those types of changes needed to help shore up resource-based communities in a meaningful way after an election is over.”

Milobar says areas of concern for him are managing a declining forestry industry while finding ways to strengthen it. Other areas he wants to focus on are repealing DRIPA and bringing back protection of private property rights, healthcare issues, and affordability issues.

In recent polling data from Mainstreet Research, Milobar was shown as the candidate that if elected as the party leader, had the strongest chance to form a majority government over the NDP.

However, three leadership candidates — Yuri Fulmer, Warren Hamm, and Darrell Jones — were not included in Mainstreet’s poll.

Milobar believes the polls area good sign of how people could believe in what he could accomplish as a leader.

“People are starting to realize that I do have a way to speak to the interior and the north residents, but also to those ridings in the lower mainland that we need to be able to form a majority government,” Milobar said. “It’s not an either-or in terms of rural and urban, it’s both. I know that both have different needs and know what we need to do to try to address those two different sets of needs.”

An issue of concern among the conservative party members is which of the candidates represent true conservative values, with a few candidates, such as Milobar and Caroline Elliot, having served as BC Liberal and BC United. Milobar says it is a point of discussion that the party will “continue to have growing pains”, but he is hopeful the party will come together based on shared principles.

“ I think what everyone’s understanding is that if you share the belief that if you’re working at a job, gainfully employed, you should be able to afford to go to a grocery store and not a food bank. If you share the belief that your street should be safe and your wife and child should be able to walk around at dusk and not feel at risk. If you think that your kids should be succeeding in school and being taught a good curriculum, and if you think that we should have access to doctors and proper healthcare. I think if we share those principles and ideals as a right-of-center voting block, we can stay together and we can form government.”

At this point in writing, Prince George — North Cariboo MLA Sheldon Clare still has not chosen a candidate to endorse.

There are seven candidates in the leadership race, and Milobar is the only sitting MLA candidate. A vote will take place on May 30.

Prior to his trip to the Cariboo, Milobar made a stop in Prince George on Monday.