Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo (British Columbia) 134/338

 Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo (British Columbia)

Today we're in Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo!

Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo has existed as a riding since 2003. The population was 124,358 in 2016. The population centers are Kamloops (90,280 in 2016), Clearwater (2,324 in 2016), and One Hundred Mile House (1,980 in 2016). The riding has a sizeable indigenous population of 12,925, with 3,021 of those coming from the Kamloops 1 Indian Reserve.

Politically, this seat has had the same placings of the four main parties since 2006 (except 2021). The Conservatives have held the seat since 2000, when they took it from the NDP, the second place party in all but two elections since. The Liberals have been in third for the most part, making 2015 a three way race. The Greens had been in fourth until 2021, but were close to taking third in 2011 and 2019. The seat is currently held by Conservative MP Frank Caputo.

As many of you may know, the Kamloops Indian Residential School is the site of where the first bodies of indigenous children were found in May of 2021. In short, the "Indian residential school" system was meant to assimilate indigenous children into colonized culture, and as a result, many indigenous children never made it home, including the estimated 215 from this site. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report estimated the number of graves in Canada to be 3,200. In 2019, this seat was 29/42 in BC and 165/338 in Canada by margin.

The name is great, maybe a tad long, but the riding does contain Kamloops as well as the Thompson and Cariboo regions. The shape is fine, I do wish the way they split the Cariboo region was a little cleaner. As for individuality, it's interesting seeing the different surges and declines and seeing how after twenty years a riding can stay pretty much the same.

Tomorrow we're in Ottawa with Kanata—Carleton!