Kamloops Centre candidates Peter Milobar (top), Kamal Grewal (bottom left) and Randy Sunderman (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

BC ELECTION 2024

Urban realignment could add interest to Kamloops Centre vote

Sep 27, 2024 | 1:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — The newly built riding of Kamloops Centre will be contested for the first time next month. The riding encompasses the urban centre of the municipality, running to the Canadian National railway line to the north, down along Summit Drive to the Trans Canada Highway along the east, and as far as Knutford in the south.

Kamloops Centre (image credit – Elections BC)

Unlike Kamloops-North Thompson, Kamloops Centre will have an incumbent MLA seeking re-election, albeit under a new banner with Peter Milobar, twice elected as a BC Liberal, running for the BC Conservatives.

“We were Social Credit, we were BC Liberals, BC Conservatives are now the right-of-centre party,” said Milobar. “We have had a lot of Conservative voters in the past who didn’t like having to check a name with BC Liberal in there — we are hearing that from some former BC Liberal supporters, absolutely. But ultimately, it really comes down to the NDP versus that right-of-centre option which is the BC Conservatives in this election.”

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While the new urban riding may favour a man who once served as it’s mayor, city centres often lean more to the left of the political spectrum, presenting an opportunity for both the NDP and the Green Party’s Randy Sunderman.

“It’s just to remind people that the riding boundaries have changed and this is actually a very favourable area for the BC Greens, we have had some excellent candidates in the past like Dan Hines, Iain Currie, Donovan Cavers who have really built a good base here in the city,” Sunderman told CFJC News. “We may be the underdog but we come in with considerable strength in this riding.”

Not since 1996 as a Kamloops riding gone orange, but had the Kamloops Centre riding been contested in 2020, the vote re-distribution shows a neck-and-neck race between the governing party and BC Liberals.

“I’m finding that a lot of, like you mentioned, the (former) BC Liberal voters do see their values align with BC NDP,” said Kamal Grewal. “I’m hoping that people will recognize the risk that we are facing here with John Rustad and his policies around climate, his policies around cancelling all of our housing plans which are actually going to deliver the results that we are hoping for.”

British Columbians head to the polls on October 19.