The Conservative Party of BC made it official yesterday … and media from the Kamloops area were on hand to hear today … as Dennis Giesbrecht and Ward Stamer were announced as candidates for the Party.
Giesbrecht, who ran for the Conservatives in 2020 will contest the new Kamloops Centre riding going up against BC United MLA Peter Milobar – while in the Kamloops North Thompson Ward Stamer (elected twice as the Mayor of Barriere) will take on BC United MLA, Todd Stone.
Dennis's background in industry, and global travel, has provided him with invaluable insights into successful and less successful projects. Dennis built his career in heavy industry. As an inspector he traveled the world insuring projects were built and maintained to the highest standards of safety and environmental standards. Dennis knows the importance that energy, forestry and ship building play in our economy.
His dedication to continuous learning equips him to embrace diverse perspectives and chart a course towards progress for the community.
Dennis staunchly defends prosperity for all British Columbians, recognizing the pivotal role of robust economic leadership and the importance of setting tangible, achievable goals. He understands that a thriving economy not only uplifts individuals but also bolsters essential programs that propel us forward collectively.
Ward's dedication to public service began long before his mayoral tenure, serving as Chairman to the Barriere Improvement District, overseeing essential services such as solid waste management, streetlights, water, and fire services. His leadership continued as he was elected to Barriere's first Council upon incorporation, eventually earning the trust of the community to serve as Mayor in 2018 and his subsequent re-election in 2022.
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A Lions Club member for over three decades, Ward embodies the motto "We Serve," which reflects his lifelong dedication to his community and its people. During his two terms as Mayor, Ward has confronted the challenges faced by municipalities head-on, prioritizing critical issues such as healthcare access, affordable housing, and senior care.
Under
Ward's leadership, significant infrastructure improvements have been realized,
including enhanced water system capacity and the expansion of the business and
industrial park sectors, providing localized employment opportunities for
residents.
Speaking this morning, Stamer kicked off the media event by outlining his top
three priorities … healthcare, affordability, and highway safety.
On healthcare he brought up the lack of walk-in clinics in the region along with the critical shortage of doctors and nurses.
“Everyone knows how hard it is to make ends meet, and pay our bills”, stated Stamer as he brought up the extra added costs which the carbon tax imposes on British Columbians.
On
the transportation front, Stamer has been a strong proponent on the need for
improvements to highway 5 in the North Thompson, especially with regards to safety
– something that for several years he has been expressing a need for.
“When you look at the difference between the investment in the last 20 years
on Highway 1 – it’s been over two billion dollars. The last we can ascertain,
for Highway 5, it’s been about 25 million dollars.
They’ve made a direct decision on putting all that infrastructure improvements
on highway one, and not on highway 5, and the crashes and fatalities have shown
that to be true.”
Just because they now saying, ’oh we’re going to fix it now’, I don’t necessarily
think they will because they haven’t shown that in the past.”
Another
question put to the two was with regards to the forest industry and
wildfires.
“Kruger pulp mill has over 400 fulltime high-paying jobs. Without the forest
industry, the pulp mill doesn’t run. That’s just an example of how important we
rely on the forest industry, and we also rely on their expertise when it comes
to wildfires.”
“I’ve been critical in the past couple fires seasons because I believe there
has been a breakdown in initial attack, response, and the incorporation of
using local resources in these fires” Stamer remarked.
“I’m looking forward, as everyone is, on the Premiers task force. I’m skeptical
they’ll be making all of the changes we’ve asked for … everyone’s got some really
good ideas … I’m hoping we’ve got enough time to at least implement a few of
them before the wildfire season.”
For Giesbrecht, along with echoing concerns about healthcare and affordability, he also brought up the explosion of street issues during the past four years.
He went on to say that the same things he spoke of four years ago (the need for treatment centres, getting rid of the carbon tax, addictions issues and the need for better mental healthcare) are orders of magnitude worse now than they were then.
He commented, “It will be incremental steps going forward’.
On
the topic of vote splitting vote splitting, Stamer commented, “I’m not sure
we will be vote splitting in this riding. I think there are significant differences
between the BC Liberal / United Party, and our party, and I think the voters in
our riding are looking for a change.
They’re not looking for recycled … they’re not looking for an endorsement of
the current government. The people of this riding are looking for change.”
For Giesbrecht’s part he commented that the vote splitting argument, ‘almost
implies that one party is entitled to a percentage of the vote. You have
to work for every vote, so thinking you’re entitled to a certain percentage of
the vote, is not relevant. People want
change, and they want to be heard, and they’re tired of being taken for granted.”
A question was also posed with regards to getting a ‘false bump’ in the polls due
to confusion with the federal Conservatives.
“Is it a also bump?”, asked Giesbrecht. “I don’t think so. We believe
in the same things.”
Moving on to the BC United Party, Giesbrecht commented, “They changed their
name from the BC Liberals – that had become such a toxic term they had to
change their name. No one asked them about the BC Liberal name, two
years ago”.
Referring
to street issues, the media scrum ended with a question to Giesbrecht about decriminalization.
“First of all”, he said, “Our party is not in favour of
decriminalization. There’s been a lot of issues lately with the safe supply. We’ve
seen that showing up in drug busts all over the province. The NDP are downplaying the severity. The
funny thing is, realistically the police are taking what … 5, 10 percent of the
drugs off the street. The success rate in capturing these drugs is pretty low.
If those safe supply drugs are showing up in a super small sample size, clearly,
it’s a problem, and it needs to be addressed. Everybody who’s here; if they had
a loved one – family member – that had a drug addiction issue, they would look
for treatment. They would want more treatment – not more drugs.
We’ve got to help the people. It’s
basically immoral to let someone wallow in this chemical slavery when we can
get them into treatment get them healthy, and get them back into society.”
Voters
will decide in October’s provincial general election who will represent them in
the BC legislature. Ward Stamer and Dennis Giesbrecht of course are hoping to turn
Kamloops Centre, and Kamloops North Thompson, Conservative blue.
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