Peter Milobar has launched his campaign to become the next leader of the BC Conservatives.The veteran MLA, who represented Kamloops-North Thompson for the BC Liberals from 2017 to 2024, before being elected to serve Kamloops Centre for the BC Conservatives, made it official at an event in Victoria on Friday morning.."A lot of people have asked me why I'd be considering doing something like this," Milobar said, noting that many believe the party is "fractured" and divided. "The reality is much different. The reality that I've experienced in our caucus over the last year is a group of people working hard on behalf of British Columbians to try and move forward, be an effective opposition, be taken seriously, and demonstrate very clearly that we are a government in waiting."He predicted that rather than divide, the leadership race would not only galvanize the party, but help it grow. Central to that goal is continuing to highlight the one thing everyone right of centre seems to agree on — that the BC NDP has not made life better for British Columbians."Over the last nine years, we have watched the complete erosion of almost every single thing in this province," Milobar lamented, "be it healthcare, crime and safety, our economy, affordability, and now with the threat of land titles and what's happening with DRIPA, it is very clear that David Eby does not actually know how to deliver.".He went on to dig deeper into many of the aforementioned issues, before focusing on the latter."The reality is, just as we saw with decriminalization, it is not working," Milobar said of DRIPA. "David Eby needs to admit it is not working and we need to restart the reconciliation process in a meaningful way, but it cannot be done with DRIPA and the uncertainty that it is creating around this province."He made it clear that "it does not make one racist to say they do not agree with DRIPA.""It does mean," Milobar added, "that we can create a framework, we can create a Reconciliation Act that actually builds upon Supreme Court rulings that have actually laid out the direction we should be going around reconciliation to make sure we are fulfilling the obligations that the Supreme Court and the constitution have laid out within law — whether people like it or not, you have to do this — and it can be done well."Milobar has been a vocal member of the official opposition in the legislature, consistently calling out the BC NDP via his role as labour critic. Before entering provincial politics, he served as mayor of Kamloops from 2008 to 2017.
