File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Electoral Boundaries

Kamloops-North Thompson it is: Government rejects MLA Stone’s effort to rename new riding

Apr 26, 2023 | 5:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — The province of B.C. will have a riding named Kamloops-North Thompson in the next election after all.

When the Electoral Boundaries Commission radically redrew riding boundaries earlier this month, Kamloops was left with a largely urban riding called ‘Kamloops Centre’ and another riding that includes parts of the city but stretches up the North Thompson Valley to the north and across the South Thompson Valley to the east.

The commission named that riding ‘Kamloops-North Thompson,’ which is the same name as the riding currently represented by B.C. United MLA Peter Milobar.

To Todd Stone, the current B.C. United MLA for Kamloops-South Thompson, that name is not fully representative of the riding’s geography. Stone is planning to run for re-election in the new Kamloops-North Thompson riding when the next election is called, with Milobar running in Kamloops Centre.

“A more appropriate name would have been ‘Kamloops and the Thompson Valleys,'” Stone said in the B.C. legislature Wednesday (April 26). The South Thompson River valley and the North Thompson River valley are both features of this riding. There are more people — a lot more people — who live along the South Thompson Valley than the North Thompson Valley.”

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However, the NDP government did not see it the same way. In a post to social media, Stone said the government voted down his effort to rename the new riding.

Stone later told CFJC Today in a text message that government MLAs reasoned changing the suggested name would compromise the independence of the Electoral Boundaries Commission, which Stone called, “a lame excuse.”

“[G]etting names correct matters,” texted Stone.