WHEELING AND MEALING
CHANGES IN HOW WE TEACH KIDS
TODAY’S WEATHER
Some new digs to treat your taste buds
Provincial curriculum will be altered
Showers High 18 C Low 7 C
A11
A3
KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
kamloopsthisweek.com kamloopsthisweek kamthisweek
30 CENTS AT NEWSSTANDS
|
SEPTEMBER 3, 2015 | Volume 28 No. 106
ELECTION2015 #elxn42 #kamloops
The past looks to the present DALE BASS AND CAM FORTEMS STAFF REPORTERS dale@kamloopsthisweek.com • cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
As the long federal election campaign continues to its Oct. 19 destination, KTW reached out to the last three MPs to serve the riding — Len Marchand (Liberal), Nelson Riis (NDP) and Betty Hinton (Conservative) — to get their perspectives on the campaign. Only Hinton did not return calls. Marchand was MP from 1968 to 1979. Riis was MP from 1980 to 2000. Hinton was MP from 2000 to 2008. Here, then, is a look at the action on the hustings thus far, through the eyes of Marchand and Riis. Len Marchand says he’s done his political thing and is looking to the “new generation out there” to govern the country. It’s fair to say, however, that Canada’s LEN first First Nations cabinet minister is MARCHAND keeping an eye on the campaign. His first observation? It’s too long. “That’s so wrong,” he said of the 11-week campaign that he says he’s watching “up to a point.” The big issues for Marchand — a former MP and Senator — are the econNELSON omy and the environment. RIIS An agrologist before he was a politician, Marchand said one of his early local projects as an MP was a result of the vagaries of the environment. “The dikes. That was a big one of my big projects back in 1971, 1972, when the Oak Hills floods came,” he said. “We built dikes to deal with any more flooding.” See FORMER MPs, A6
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair faces off against a group of children while campaigning on McArthur Island yesterday.
NDP to review kids’ sports tax credit CAM FORTEMS
STAFF REPORTER
cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
An NDP government would retain the current tax credit for sports only if it can be proved it is working to get more kids to play, leader Thomas Mulcair told reporters in Kamloops Wednesday. To a backdrop of young street hockey players outside McArthur Island Sport and Event Centre, the New Democrat leader announced an NDP government
CANADA’S TRUCK CAMPER SPECIALIST Your Exclusive Local Dealer For
DAVE EAGLES/KTW
would invest $28 million to help lowincome families with costs of sport. That funding would go to Sport Canada to be channeled into direct family supports to help with registration fees and equipment. But, in response to a question, Mulcair said an NDP government wants to determine if the current child-fitness tax credit is working. “We think it’s a very good idea to give families a tax credit to give them a hand with their kids’ sports and participate,
Eagle Cap FRASERWAY.com 1300 Chief Louis Way, Kamloops BC DL:40065 Phone: 250-828-0093
exactly what we’re doing here today,” he said. “But, one big problem is Mr. Harper [Conservative Leader Stephen] has refused to have those things measured.” Mulcair said the goal of measuring effectiveness of tax credits was mentioned by the parliamentary budget officer this year. He wants to determine whether those targeted measures are having the desired effect of getting more kids off the couch. See MULCAIR, A7