Kamloops mayor secures Liberal nomination

Kamloops mayor Peter Milobar has been chosen to represent the B.C. Liberals in the riding of Kamloops-North Thompson.

On Nov.19, members of the Liberal party voted to choose Milobar to be their candidate. He beat out Kamloops-areabusinessman Mike Grenier and the head of the North Shore Business Association, Steven Puhallo.

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"It's always stressful with any election especially when you have such credible people running against you," said Milobar.

"Once the polls close, then you sit there very nervously hoping you've done enough to get your vote out and fortunately for me, it panned out."

Milobar put his name forward after the current Kamloops-North Thompson MLA and health ministerTerry Lakeannounced he would not be seeking re-election.

'Uncharted territory'

Milobar will be reaching out to former MLAs to get advice on how to best run his campaign.

"It's all uncharted territory for me."

Until the writ drops, Milobar will stay in his role as mayor while continuing to campaign as the Liberal candidate.

"It happens quite often in B.C. where elected officials are running for parties," he said.

"You just have to be mindful, when you're at a city event you're there as the mayor and not make it a partisan event and when you go to an election-style event you're there as the candidate, not as the mayor," said Milobar.

In an email, Kamloops CAO DavidTrawin said "as far as staff are concerned, it is business as usual at this time."

Peter Milobar is currently serving his third term as mayor of Kamloops.

Barb Nederpel is representing the NDP in the riding.Dan Hines is the candidate for the Green Partywhile Peter Kerek is representing the B.C. Communist Party.

With files from CBC Radio One's Daybreak Kamloops

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled:Kamloops mayor secures Liberal nomination