Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart held the opening of her campaign office in Hope and sat down with The Standard to share her views, on March 10.
The Friday afternoon event saw attendance of Hope residents, her campaign manager Michele Coleman and volunteers.
“I’m excited to be running for the BC Liberals in Fraser-Nicola. Our team is strong and we’re getting our offices open. Really pleased to be in Hope today,” said Tegart on that Friday.
Tegart said she visited a few businesses and the Hope and District Recreation Centre and learned about the concerns including jobs, economic development, challenges with roads.
“I’ve met with Nestle, looking at who the major employers are and look at how we support the community in their plans,” said Tegart.
Tegart said she is “very good” at lobbying for roadway maintenance, and will also lobby to improve the University of the Fraser Valley Hope Campus.
“I am a person that listens and so I think that communities … don’t want someone to come in and tell them how to do their business,” said Tegart. “So the way I do business is I reach out.”
Four years ago Tegart entered provincial politics and in her time as MLA, she learned that every community is unique.
“The riding is huge, every community is special, every area has issues that might be similar in some ways but different in others,” said Tegart. “What we’ve done is reached out to all the leaders, both at council level, school district level, First Nations band councils, to get a sense of what their issues are and then how we can help remove barriers and make things happen for them.”
Asked how she plans to beat the NDP, who has Harry Lali as one of its two nomination candidates, Tegart said voters should look at the Liberals’ record.
“We are number one in Canada for job creation, number one in Canada for unemployment,” said Tegart. “We have a jobs plan that we have developed and we have been sticking to. No other province has a balanced budget and we just tabled our fifth balanced budget. We have had a surplus for the last five years, and we’re returning money to people in British Columbia.”
Tegart opened her Ashcroft office two weeks ago and will open Merritt’s this week. Her riding’s biggest towns are Merritt first, then Hope.
