iN DISCUSSION: BC Conservatives need to pick a lane

This is where cold hard facts give way to the hottest of takes, mostly mine I suppose. I’m the editor, Marshall Jones.

Want to include yours? Listen, this isn’t the comment section, this isn’t social media. Discussion and debate requires context and a wee bit of bravery — we need your name and where you’re writing from. Include it in your account or email me anytime.

---

Why Peter Milobar had to run for the BC Conservative leadership

Former Kamloops mayor and now MLA Peter Milobar wants to be premier.

He’s running for the leadership of his Conservative Party. 

I think he had to run.

I’ve always appreciated Milobar, no matter his role. Perhaps not the most charismatic or bold but I’m a good governance guy and he’s never embarrassed himself or his office, he’s not a grandstander, he’s not a hider. 

I think leadership is perhaps a tad premature, which I think confirms my suspicions from before the election — few MLAs are as conflicted about the guts of this Conservative Party as Peter Milobar.

Having to join John Rustad must have felt awful.

He will have had zero patience for the furthest right members of that party — particularly the infighting over the language and tenor of Indigenous issues — and their numbers are plentiful.

Now the party needs to pick a lane. 

It’s a tough choice for everyone there. Do they retool the BC Liberal brand voters turned away from? Or lean in to a right wing demographic looking for political representation and thought they’d found it?

Ready or not, Milobar must exert himself and his values at this time, even if it’s to throw support behind a candidate he can support. 

Because if they end up with another John Rustad, he might have to find another job.

I’d love your thoughts. Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Mj

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

---

iN RESPONSE

iN RESPONSE to the social disorder and crime in downtown Kamloops

Kelowna businesses are upset about a five-dollar fee to attend a city-organized forum on downtown crime.

Five dollars.

The City of Kelowna says the fee is meant to reduce no-shows, and that the proceeds will go to a local charity. Still, the reaction has been loud: “tacky,” “ridiculous,” “a slap in the face.”

Meanwhile, many people in this city are struggling to afford food, housing, medication, or even a bus pass.

Perspective matters.

The story focused on business owners dealing with broken windows, vandalism, and safety concerns — all valid issues. But the outrage wasn’t really about crime itself. It was about paying five dollars to attend a discussion.

Five dollars is less than the price of a coffee and a muffin.

Yes, it’s an out-of-pocket cost, and yes, it affects cash flow. But it’s also an operating expense — the kind that is typically tax-deductible for businesses. For many residents, $5 isn’t an “insult,” it’s a calculation: food, transit, or nothing at all.

There’s also an uncomfortable truth that rarely gets acknowledged: many low-income residents don’t shop downtown in the first place. Most downtown stores cater to higher-end customers with premium-priced goods. These are premium products, in premium shops, serving a premium clientele — not your regular guy or gal trying to stretch a budget. For many of us, downtown isn’t a shopping destination; it’s a place we pass through.

So when business owners frame downtown safety purely around protecting commerce, it leaves out a large part of the community that was never their customer base to begin with.

What really stood out wasn’t the fee — it was the framing.

The coverage centred business frustration without acknowledging the wider reality of who actually bears the weight of downtown “disorder.” People dealing with homelessness, addiction, mental illness, trauma, and poverty don’t get to attend forums. They live the consequences every day.

And yet, their voices rarely make the news.

What’s missing from these conversations is nuance. Downtown safety isn’t just about storefronts and windows — it’s about housing, healthcare, addiction support, mental health services, and community stability.

If the city can ask for five dollars to prevent empty seats, it can also ask for five minutes of deeper thinking.

Because real solutions don’t come from outrage over small fees. They come from understanding the full picture.

— Randy Millis via email

Trump ties his stance on Greenland to not getting Nobel Peace Prize

This is the sort of thing that made sure that Donald Trump was not going to get the peace prize. It was never about peace. It was about doing something to get something that he wants. A big component of any peace is stability and he can’t maintain that in much of anything that he does.

— William Mastop via iNFOnews.ca

---

Tara Armstrong Recall Countdown

Tara Armstrong is currently the MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream. She rode the coattails of the BC Conservative Party, got elected, then rejected and left the party to serve as an Independent within weeks because the Conservatives were too left wing. Now she gets to spout moronic, hateful rhetoric and claim that her riding supports her.

Elections BC says you can recall an MLA if 40% of eligible voters in the riding sign a recall petition — but not for the first 18 months after an election. Some people started an online petition calling for a byelection once she made a shift to independent, then got herself a raise by forming her own party, but it won’t mean anything until the countdown clock hits zero.

So let the countdown begin!

---

Disclaimer: Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on this page are solely those of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of the editor, iNFOnews.ca, iNFOTEL MULTIMEDIA, its partners, principals or advertisers.