A new 'Team Kamloops'

While Saturday's provincial election remains too close to call, Peter Milobar and Ward Stamer are moving forward as Team Kamloops.

Speaking to supporters after their victories in Kamloops-North Thompson and Kamloops Centre in the provincial election, Stamer and Milobar thanked their volunteers and all the people who helped out during the campaign. Both ran under the Conservative Party of B.C. banner.

Milobar, the incumbent BC United MLA for the former Kamloops-South Thompson riding, said the region has, for as long as he can remember, had two good MLAs who work well together as “Team Kamloops.”

“I’m so excited and confident to say that tradition is going to continue on with this man I’ve known for a long time,” Milobar said of Stamer.

Stamer, the mayor of Barriere, was emotional while delivering his acceptance speech on Saturday.

“I find this is really emotional when we get to this kind of stuff, but the reality is we've got a job to do, and that's why Peter and I got into this with this party," he said.

Stamer and Milobar watched the election results roll in with a contingent of about 50 supporters at Match Eatery in Cascades Casino Saturday night, the crowd cheering as they watched live updates showing the two leading handily as results flowed in.

Picture still not clear

With more than 99 per cent of votes counted late Saturday, the BC NDP was leading or elected in 46 ridings, followed by the B.C. Conservatives at 45 and the Greens at two.

Forty-seven seats are needed to form a majority government.

Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad told supporters that even if David Eby's NDP returned to power in a minority government he would take "every opportunity" to bring them down.

Eby acknowledged that the final count is still not clear.

“But what we do know is that there was a clear majority for the progressive values,” the incumbent premier said.

“There was also another message in this narrowest of margins, and that's we got to do better, and that was our commitment to British Columbians.”

Solid mandate for MLAs

Milobar took the new Kamloops Centre riding by more than 2,000 votes — a large improvement over his last election victory in 2020, which he won by only 196 votes — while newcomer Stamer took the redrawn Kamloops-North Thompson by nearly 8,000 votes.

Milobar said his top priority when he gets back to Victoria will be healthcare issues, noting that Kamloops needs a catheterization lab and the pending cancer centre needs to be built with room for both radiation and chemotherapy services in the same building.

“We need it built properly so that it functions well for the next 30, 40 years in this community,” Milobar said.

Stamer’s top priorities when he gets to Victoria will be lack of access to healthcare and housing.

“That’s why we ran, was because we wanted a change,” Stamer said. “We got to do more than just work on it.”

NDP happy with effort

BC NDP candidates Kamal Grewal and Maddi Genn were welcomed by rounds of applause by supporters despite their loss in both ridings, and both said they have no plans on giving up on politics.

Speaking with Castanet, Genn, who received nearly a third of the vote in the Kamloops-North Thompson riding, said she was proud of the work of her campaign team.

“Don't get me wrong, it would have been cooler if we could have started earlier, like I said, but that's just the way that things go,” she said.

“I’m so, so proud of the work that we've done. I don't think that we could have done anything different.”

Genn congratulated Stamer, noting her opponent worked hard and said the victory was deserved.

When asked if she’ll be running again in the next provincial election, Genn said she’d “definitely give it a shot.”

“I’m not going anywhere, I'm going to stick around, I’m going to do everything that I can to continue to advocate for my community, because at the end of the day, that's what got me into this in the first place,” she said.

'That's a win for me'

Coming away with more than 40 per cent of the vote, about 8.5 per cent behind Milobar, Grewal said she felt Kamloops has been reluctant to change, but said the number of votes she received indicated a change in the winds.

She said she doesn’t really feel like she lost.

“We may not have won the seat, but the way I look at it, 9,600 people placed their trust in me — that's a win for me,” she said.

“This is already a win, especially being a younger woman and a woman of colour.”

Grewal said she’d like to run again in the next election. In the meantime, she doesn’t plan on leaving Kamloops.

“I'm going to explore a little bit and find some opportunities to get more involved and contribute directly into some of the issues that I care about,” she said.

“Even if I haven't won, I am still going to make difference in this community.”

Greens focus on positive

Tristan Cavers, who ran for the BC Green Party in the Kamloops-North Thompson, said he hopes Stamer “bears this responsibility properly” when the newly-elected MLA represents the riding in Victoria.

“I’m sure he watched the debate, and maybe he saw something there in Sonia Furstenau in terms of being civil, bringing evidence-based ideas to the table and showing follow through and really showing resolve for doing the right thing,” Cavers said, referencing the BC Green Party leader who lost her race for re-election Saturday.

“Theoretically, [B.C. Conservative Leader] John Rustand is going to give his members the freedom to do that — so I really hope [Stamer] accepts that responsibility.”

Cavers, a last-minute BC Green candidate, received about seven per cent of the vote in the riding. As of Saturday night, he said he was glad to see two B.C. seats going Green.

“We may hold the balance of power,” he said, lamenting the loss of Furstenau. "It's unfortunate that we lose such a veteran in the legislature and someone who really brings civil discourse."

Randy Sunderman, who ran for the Greens in the Kamloops Centre riding, where he collected more than 10 per cent of the vote, did not return Castanet’s calls in time to be included in this story.

Students pick Conservatives, too

Nearly 5,000 Kamloops-area students cast unofficial ballots as part of Student Vote BC, and they too would have chosen Milobar and Stamer to represent them in Victoria had those votes counted.

Student Vote BC saw 172,003 students vote in a model election, including 4,670 from schools in the Kamloops Centre and Kamloops-North Thompson ridings.

In the Kamloops Centre riding, Milobar finished atop the heap with 953 votes, good for 42 per cent, well ahead of Grewal (711) and Sunderman (624).

In Kamloops-North Thompson, Stamer tallied 1,103 ballots, which earned him 46 per cent of the vote. Genn (706) finished second and Cavers (573) came in third.

Based on the student's ballots, the BC NDP took 36.7 per cent of the popular vote and won 44 seats, forming a minority government; the BC Conservative Party will form the official opposition with 40 seats and 36.2 per cent of the popular vote; and the BC Green Party received 19.2 per cent of the popular vote and won nine seats.