B.C. Conservatives leader confirms ‘symbolic move’ of putting headquarters in Kamloops

NEWS — The new leader of the B.C. Conservatives confirmed Monday the provincial headquarters for the party will be in Kamloops.

Dan Brooks, elected at a convention in Richmond on the weekend, said the Kamloops office he’s been using for his leadership campaign will now serve as provincial headquarters, though he said other offices might become necessary leading up to the next B.C. election in 2017.

He said the party’s executive agrees with him on the headquarters issue. “I don’t like to spend money where I don’t need to,” he told The Armchair Mayor News. “This office is sufficient.”

Asked about the need to serve the large cluster of ridings in the Lower Mainland, Brooks said, “I hear that quite often, but we live in a digital age.”

He emphasized the importance of paying attention to the Interior of the province. “Some things you do symbolically. This is a very symbolic move. I’m trying to send a symbolic message. I am the candidate of rural British Columbia.”

Kamloops is the perfect place for the party’s headquarters because of its location, he said, being central to much of the province. “I think that the province of British Columbia desperately needs a reboot.”

He said his immediate priority is building up local and regional party organizations without micro managing. “I’m moving very quickly on that.”

Brooks, who has spent most of his time in Kamloops since last October during the leadership campaign, plans to move his family here from Vanderhoof this summer.