More than a week after the federal election was officially announced, the race in the Cariboo-Prince George riding is finally underway.
Conservative Dick Harris and Green party candidate Heidi Redl will be joined by recently confirmed NDP candidate Jon VanBarneveld, Liberal candidate Sangetta Lalli and Christian Heritage Party candidate Henry Thiessen.
VanBarneveld was chosen as the NDP candidate at a conference over the weekend; Lalli was announced by the party last week pending the approval of her paperwork.
Thiessen has been the chosen candidate for the CHP since late January; however, the Tribune was only alerted to his candidacy by a local supporter last week.
VanBarneveld, a fourth-year UNBC student studying natural-resource management, isn’t concerned about being a late starter.
He describes the NDP campaign as having “a lot of energy and a lot of momentum on the ground.”
He says the NDP is the natural party for the management of public resources. “We have a strong view of public resources... we know the value of a hard days work and the value of resources.”
The Conservatives, says VanBarneveld, are wrong when it comes to managing Canada’s resources. Rather than shipping raw logs to China or approving a pipeline to transport oil directly from the tar sands to the coast to be shipped to Asia, he says, Canada should be protecting its resources .
“The NDP has always been an advocate for our home front and I think that will be important when considering the long-term viability of our local economy.”
Liberal candidate Sangeeta Lalli is a fourth-year political science student at the University of British Columbia.
She does not live in the Cariboo-Prince George riding but says she chose to represent it because of her time spent in the Prince George/Williams Lake area growing up. If she wins the seat, she will move to the area.
Lalli has worked on federal, provincial and municipal elections campaign, most recently as a member of B.C. premier Christy Clark’s team. The attraction, she says, to the federal Liberal party is its broad appeal.
“The Liberal party can create any policy and make it their own. They take from the left and take from the right and make it work for Canadians.”
Senior care, the Liberal’s newly announced platforms of the Learning Passport and the tax incentive encouraging business to hire young people, Lalli says, are three important issues she expects to campaign on.
Henry Thiessen admits he doesn’t have much support —either financial or logistical — but he’s pushing ahead to promote the platform of the CHP in Cariboo-Prince George.
Thiessen, who lives in Vanderhoof, says he’s been involved in other CHP campaigns but this is the first time he’s been a candidate.
A former supporter of the Reform party, he says he can’t support the party (Conservative) that amalgamated them because of its lack of fiscal and social conservatism.
“When it comes to moral conservative and fiscal conservative views, unfortunately the Conservative party only appears to be conservative by name and not be practice and so this is another reason why I think there’s a place for someone like the CHP to bring forward those principles,” he says, adding the CHP further supports electoral reform.
