Kamloops—North Thompson

Kamloops—North Thompson extends from the northern neighbourhoods of Kamloops up the Yellowhead Highway corridor through Barriere, Clearwater, and Blue River, reaching deep into the rugged terrain of the North Thompson River valley. The riding takes in ranching country, timber-dependent communities, and the ski and recreation areas around Sun Peaks, with Kamloops itself serving as the southern anchor—home to Thompson Rivers University, Royal Inland Hospital, and a diversified service economy. The 2024 redistribution preserved the riding's essential geography, keeping its mix of urban and rural communities intact.

Candidates

Ward Stamer (Conservative Party) — Stamer had served as mayor of Barriere since 2018, having been acclaimed for a second term in 2022. Before entering municipal politics, he spent nearly four decades as a logging contractor in the North Thompson. He was first elected to Barriere's council upon the community's incorporation in 2007 and was a longtime Social Credit Party supporter who joined the Conservative Party of BC.

Maddi Genn (BC NDP) — Genn was a 27-year-old human services professional who had spent six years working with at-risk youth at Active Care in Kamloops. She held a human services diploma from Thompson Rivers University and was active in her union. The BC NDP recruited her to run in the riding, marking her first foray into electoral politics.

Tristan Cavers (BC Green Party) — Cavers was a third-generation farmer from Chase, a volunteer firefighter and first responder with Chase Fire Rescue and the Adams Lake Fire Department, and a part-time employee of the Thompson Nicola Regional Library system. He entered the race at the last minute, gathering nomination signatures just a day before the deadline. He had served as chair of the Kamloops Farmer's Market and was a member of the Chase Chamber of Commerce.

Local Issues

Wildfire remained the most visceral threat facing communities throughout the riding. The 2023 fire season—the most destructive in British Columbia's recorded history—had devastated parts of the southern Interior and left the North Thompson on edge. The Bush Creek East wildfire, which merged with the Lower East Adams Lake fire in August 2023, forced evacuations throughout the North Shuswap, with the Columbia Shuswap Regional District confirming 131 structures destroyed and 37 damaged, and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District confirming structural impacts on eleven properties including nine where structures were destroyed. Province-wide, the 2023 season burned more than 2.84 million hectares. The NDP government responded by making wildfire fighting a year-round operation and increasing resources for prevention, but residents in fire-prone communities like Barriere—devastated by the 2003 McLure fire—continued to press for expanded fuel management and better emergency preparedness along the highway corridors.

Health care access was an urgent concern across the riding's vast geography. Rural emergency room closures had become a recurring crisis in the Interior Health region, with communities like Clearwater and Merritt experiencing temporary shutdowns due to staffing shortages. The Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops—the regional referral centre for the southern Interior—had recently completed a $417-million patient care tower that opened to patients in 2022, but the facility continued to face staffing pressures and demand that strained its expanded capacity. Residents in smaller North Thompson communities faced drives of several hours to reach specialists in Kamloops or Kelowna, and ambulance coverage in remote areas remained a persistent source of anxiety for an aging population.

Housing affordability and the cost of living had intensified as concerns during the NDP's term. Kamloops and surrounding communities experienced rising housing costs driven by demand from buyers priced out of the Lower Mainland, while small towns along the North Thompson corridor had virtually no rental vacancies. The opioid crisis continued to claim lives at alarming rates, with Kamloops recording some of the highest per-capita overdose death rates in the province. The intersection of homelessness, addiction, and inadequate supportive housing shaped a campaign in which affordability and social services were inseparable from the broader question of quality of life in the Interior.