File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

CANADA VOTES 2025

Potential toss-up election officially underway in Kamloops and Canada

Mar 24, 2025 | 4:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — It was the worst kept secret in Ottawa as election season is officially underway in Canada, with voters set to head to the polls on Monday, April 28, to elect the next federal government.

Locally, Kamloops is now split into two ridings — Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola (KTN), encompassing the western portion of Kamloops, along with Merritt and communities up the Thompson Valleys. The other riding, beginning east of Sixth Avenue and Highway 5A, is called Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies (KSCR). Both ridings will have Conservative Party incumbents running, with Frank Caputo and Mel Arnold confirmed to be seeking re-election.

Three months ago, a toss-up federal election appeared unlikely, with the Conservatives far and away out front of the pack. Now, as the campaigns begin in Kamloops, it’s all still for the taking.

“I think every campaign matters. If you harken back to the Kim Campbell time, the polls were even at the start of that election, so I don’t pay much attention to them, especially in between elections,” said Caputo. “I am here to earn the trust of every single voter and that is my job and that is what I’m going to stick to.”

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The Liberals are being buoyed by a new leader at the helm in Mark Carney and the ongoing rhetoric from south of the border.

“I think Canadians are realizing en masse how important the choice they are making (is). They are rejecting the message of division, the parroting of Donald Trump’s talking points by Pierre Poilievre,” said potential Liberal Candidate in KTN, Iain Currie.

Polls are quickly showing the election turning into a two-horse race for Rideau Cottage, between the Grits and the Tories.

“The Liberals are pulling votes from the NDP. They are also pulling them from the Conservatives. They are taking a much more of a traditional centre Liberal position,” said Robert Hanlon, Associate Political Science Professor at TRU. “It is going to be difficult for the NDP to get some of those votes back — as well as Conservatives. Conservatives have to work harder at pulling some of those centre votes out of the Liberal party.”

As Canada stands up against economic and territorial threats from the United States, Hanlon believes it is imperative for the Conservatives to create separation.

“The Conservatives are going to really have to differentiate themselves. They are going to have to make sure that Poilievre is not associated with Trump or a Trump-light party. The Conservatives are really going to have to work hard to come to the middle, dropping some of the similar rhetoric we are hearing out of the United States if they are going to be serious about winning this election,” said Hanlon.

Major parties are beginning to roll out policy and promises with election day just five weeks away, with both the Liberals and Conservatives announcing income tax changes on the first day of the campaign.

“Canadians see what is potentially in front of us, what has happened to our friends and neighbours to the south and are choosing a better path. That is why this election is so important,” said Currie.

“We want to put Canada first and foremost in everything we do — not just when it comes to tariffs, not just in dealing with the United States, when it comes to jobs, housing is a key pillar to our platform,” added Caputo.

The Kamloops NDP riding association confirmed to CFJC News that prospective candidates for both ridings are currently going through the internal vetting process with candidate announcements to follow shortly.

The People’s Party of Canada has named candidates in both ridings – Clearwater resident Chris Enns in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola and Revelstoke resident Michael Henry in Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies.

While the Green Party does not appear to have a candidate yet in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola, it lists Grindrod farmer Owen Madden as its candidate in Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies.

Election day is set for Monday, April 28.