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KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK THURSDAY
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SETEMBER 7, 2017 | Volume 30 No. 107
Stone mulling bid for B.C. Liberal leadership
DRIEST SUMMER EVER RECORDED
STATISTICS GO BACK TO 1895
CAM FORTEMS
STAFF REPORTER
cam@kamloopsthisweek.com
CHRISTOPHER FOULDS
KTW EDITOR
editor@kamloopsthisweek.com
The summer of 2017 will go down as the driest ever recorded in Kamloops. According to Environment Canada meteorologist Doug Lundquist, there’s a good reason for last week’s drought declaration — a pronounced paucity of precipitation. According to Environment Canada data, Kamloops received just 8.6 millimetres of rain through June, July and August, a three-month period when the city normally receives 93 millimetres of rain. June saw 3.4 millimetres of rain fall (the month normally
Kids will be able to enjoy water park fun through the weekend as warm temperatures have prompted the City of Kamloops to keep water parks open. KTW FILE PHOTO
receives 34 millimetres). July also recorded 3.4 millimetres of rain (the month normally receives 30 millimetres). August took in 1.8 millimetres of rain (the month normally
TODAY’S WEATHER
Sunny and hot High 20 C Low 12 C
receives 29 millimetres). Lundquist noted Kamloops has two wet seasons (summer and winter) and two dry seasons (spring and fall).
“Unless we get some significant precipitation in the next little while, the problems we are seeing will persist,” he said, referring to wildfires and drought. See 50 DAYS, A12
Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone is seriously considering a run at the B.C. Liberal leadership, saying Wednesday he is in touch with party members throughout the province. And, while he has yet to enter, Stone is reaching out to members, positioning his background as a tech entrepreneur — and the youngest who would enter the race — and considering the leadership’s steep financial price. The B.C. Liberal Party has set a $600,000 cap for spending, a level Stone said serious contenders will reach. Those contenders must also contribute to party coffers beyond that sum,
Linda,
making the real fundraising need about $750,000. “The components for any leadership campaign are message, membership and money,” he told KTW. “If you don’t have all three in plenty, you won’t be successful.” Any successful leader will need to draw support from each of B.C.’s 87 ridings due to the weighting of the vote. Following the 2013 election, Stone, then a rookie MLA, became
BLAZERS FORWARD THINKING
See LEADER, page A11
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transportation minister as soon as he took office. He is now reaching out to members across British Columbia. “Where did we go wrong the last year or two years and what do we need to do to restore the trust of British Columbians?” Stone said he expects leadership candidates to include former cabinet ministers Andrew Wilkinson and Mike Bernier, rookie MLA Michael Lee and, potentially, former Surrey mayor and current federal Conservative MP Dianne Watts and former B.C. finance minister Mike de Jong. Another Interior MLA, George Abbott, ran unsuccessfully against Christy Clark in 2010.
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