By Dylana Milobar

MP McLeod anticipating changes in local support for federal Liberals

Jan 9, 2019 | 10:38 AM

KAMLOOPS — With a federal election coming up this year, the MP for the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding thinks there could be a shift in support for the Liberals.

Pointing to some of the larger issues such as federal spending, and what were found to be improper consultations with First Nations on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, Cathy McLeod says she thinks voters will be taking a hard look at who they end up supporting for the 2019 election.

“There are many expert economists who say ‘you (the federal government) haven’t set yourselves up to be ready for the next recession’,” McLeod explains, “and certainly if you look at some of the projections, you look at the stock market, you look at some softening in the housing industry, what we haven’t done is left ourselves some latitude in flexibility to deal with what is ultimately going to come again because the economy is cyclical.”

With the work that has been done since the last election, McLeod says she’s noticed the excitement from federal Liberal supporters in her riding has dwindled.

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“Especially around how they’re spending money around their deficits. Another promise that was made was we’d be back to a balanced budget this year, we now are not going to be back to a balanced budget until 2040. So I think that’s a concern,” she says. “There (were) promises made, and so there are people in this riding who have said, ‘I made a mistake and I’m really disappointed in terms of what this government has done.’”

McLeod notes she hopes the election remains based on policies and platforms, instead of what can sometimes happen with campaigns getting ‘kind of nasty’.

“One thing I know that when we were government, we made 114 commitments on our platform, and I think we followed through on 107,” McLeod says. “I think that’s important — not to make promises that people are going to vote for you because they like your promises, but also, they’re going to vote for you and they have confidence that you’re going to actually fufill them.”