Liberals Todd Stone (left) and Peter Milobar will represent Kamloops for the next four years at the B.C. Legislature (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

ELECTION 2020

Stone, Milobar ready to fight for cancer care clinic, other Interior priorities as they return to Victoria

Oct 26, 2020 | 3:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — Todd Stone is cleaning up his B.C. Liberal campaign office on Monday (Oct. 26), two days after cleaning up in the Kamloops-South Thompson riding once again.

Stone defeated the NDP’s Anna Thomas by 4,000 votes to win a third term, but will be in opposition for a second straight stint. His top priority is ensuring Kamloops receives the cancer care clinic promised by NDP Leader John Horgan this election campaign.

“It’s long overdue. We came through this campaign and committed to enhanced cancer care, and the very next day John Horgan announced that he was going to match that commitment and put a cancer centre here in Kamloops,” said Stone. “So that appears to be something where we can find some common ground. We’re going to hold him to his word on that.”

Among other priorities for Stone and fellow B.C. Liberal MLA Peter Milobar, who narrowly won the north riding on Saturday, is ensuring Parkcrest Elementary is built quickly and the city’s Car 40 program receives reinforcements.

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“When you look at commitments made in the election, those are all things we truly do need in this area. They’re not nice-to-dos,” said Milobar, who’s returning to Victoria on a second term. “We need elementary schools, we need a Foundry (Centre) for youth, mental health and addiction services, we need expanded Car 40 programs, and we also need that cancer clinic.”

However, with a divide between the Lower Mainland, dominated by the NDP, and the Interior boasting mainly Liberals, lobbying the government for Interior projects may prove more challenging.

Political pundits say if the NDP hopes to last beyond these four years, the party will need to keep at least a few promises.

“If the NDP ever win a third term, that’s a much more difficult task, and so promises are something voters will hold them to account on,” said TRU political science professor Robert Hanlon. “We see policy promises broken all the time, or change, and there are all kinds of reasons why, but I think the few promises, the big major ones that they did communicate to the region are going to be things that voters remember.”

Hanlon added, “John Horgan yesterday (Oct. 25) said they were looking to gain more ground in the Interior. The NDP acknowledges there is this Lower Mainland-Interior divide, so that’s going to be something real leadership is going to call for. If they hope to gain a third term, it will be through support in the Interior.”

Stone feels some of the issues that are important in the Lower Mainland are the same issues faced by Interior communities.

“Kamloops is as much urban as it is rural. The issues here in Kamloops around transportation, around housing, around child care, around long-term care, climate change, are just as resonant here as they are in Metro Vancouver,” noted Stone. “They’re very much the same issues, so I think that I’m someone who, yes, represents an Interior constituency but represents an Interior constituency that is somewhat of a microcosm of the province.”