Lake, Krueger not Standing Up for Kamloops

(Aired on April 15, 2010)

If an election were held today, MLAs Kevin Krueger and Terry Lake would be toast. Quite frankly, it's tiring hearing them toe the party line every time they turn around with just about every decision that's made. Maybe they're fighting the fight behind the scenes, in caucus, and telling the government how stupid they are. But in public they continue to tell us how great the Liberals are and what a great job they're doing. They're not serving the best interests of the people in Kamloops.

For example, word this morning that all decisions affecting Royal Inland Hospital are going to be made from now on out of Kelowna. If that's true, that's a huge slap in the face not only to Kamloops, but to our two MLA's. Krueger is quoted as saying it's a good thing and will provide Royal Inland with an equal opportunity to Kelowna General. That's crap, and Kevin knows it.

Mayor Peter Milobar is right when he says it would be like having only one city council because the communities are kind of close together. If the council were in Kelowna, do you think they'd think of Kamloops first? We're already hearing from the RCMP that they're having problems with the integrated dispatching service that is located in Kelowna. I said right off the bat there would be problems, and I've been proven right. The dispatchers in Kelowna don't even know half the time where they're sending people, because they don't know the area. And there are other problems as well.

When you couple this with the HST coming in, with the problems over education funding, the Liberals would not stand a hope in either of the two Kamloops ridings if we were going to the polls today. Having said that, the government has three years left in their mandate, and a lot can happen in that time. But I think Kamloops voters could well have long memories when it comes to this one. If the NDP can mount even a half-hearted attack in 2013, we'll be looking at a vast shift of power. But whether that will happen is, of course, anyone's guess. Who knows, maybe a miracle will happen and someone in Kelowna will actually toss us a bone.