Kamloops--Thompson--Cariboo

Kamloops--Thompson--Cariboo is a vast federal electoral district in British Columbia's interior, stretching from the city of Kamloops northward along Highway 97 through the Cariboo region to communities like Clinton, 100 Mile House, and Lac la Hache, and northeast along Highway 5 toward Valemount. The riding is situated in the Thompson Valley within the Montane Cordillera Ecozone, a semi-arid landscape shaped by its rain shadow location east of the Coast Mountains. While the riding covers an enormous geographic area, approximately three-quarters of its population is concentrated in the city of Kamloops, which recorded a population of 97,902 in the 2021 census -- an 8.4% increase from 2016.

Candidates

Frank Caputo (Conservative) was born and raised in Kamloops by parents who immigrated from Italy. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University, a Bachelor of Laws with distinction from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Master of Laws from the University of Alberta. Before entering politics, Caputo worked as a Crown prosecutor in Kamloops and as an instructor at Thompson Rivers University.

Bill Sundhu (NDP) is a prominent Kamloops lawyer and former British Columbia Provincial Court judge who grew up in the Cariboo -- born in New Westminster but raised in Williams Lake, where he worked in lumber mills to fund his university education. His father immigrated from India to settle in the Cariboo in the 1950s. Sundhu serves on the UBC Board of Governors and regularly travels to Haida Gwaii to represent Indigenous clients.

Jesse McCormick (Liberal) is a lawyer of Anishinaabe heritage who grew up in London, Ontario. He holds law degrees from Ottawa and has worked at the Federal Court of Canada, the United Nations, and on Parliament Hill as a political advisor to the Ministers of Aboriginal Affairs, Environment and Climate Change, and Justice. His wife is from Lillooet, and they have deep ties to the British Columbia interior.

Corally Delwo (PPC) moved to British Columbia from Alberta and has lived in the Kamloops area since 2009, raising three children and a grandchild. She studied at Thompson Rivers University and operated her own small business while volunteering extensively in the community.

About the Riding

Kamloops sits at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers, a geographic position that has made it a transportation and trade hub since long before European contact -- the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc (Kamloops Indian Band) of the Secwepemc Nation have inhabited the area for thousands of years. Today, the city is a crossroads of major highway and rail corridors, with the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) and Highway 5 (the Yellowhead) intersecting within city limits, and both CN and CP Rail maintaining operations in the area.

Thompson Rivers University, with a student body of over 25,000 including a large international contingent, is one of the city's most significant economic and cultural institutions. The university, along with Royal Inland Hospital and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation's headquarters, anchors Kamloops' service-sector economy. Beyond the city, the riding's economy is shaped by ranching, forestry, and mining -- industries that define the Cariboo region to the north.

The Cariboo communities within the riding carry a distinctive frontier heritage. Towns like 100 Mile House and 108 Mile Ranch take their names from their distance along the historic Cariboo Road from Lillooet, built during the 1860s gold rush. The region's vast ranchlands, pine forests, and chain of lakes along the Highway 97 corridor attract hunters, anglers, and outdoor recreation enthusiasts. English is overwhelmingly the primary language, spoken by roughly 89% of residents, and the riding has historically leaned conservative in federal elections, having been represented by Conservative or Reform Party MPs for most of the past several decades.