SINGH – Open letter to Peter Milobar: Lean into ‘not flashy but steady’

By ARJUN SINGH
The Kamloops Chronicle

‘AN OPEN LETTER to Peter Milobar’

Hello Pete,

Consider this unsolicited — but I hope you’ll find it useful.

I’ve been watching your leadership campaign for the BC Conservative Party with genuine interest, and I want to share a few honest thoughts.

First, I’m proud of you. Our families go back a long way. Our fathers built their medical careers as friends in Kamloops starting in the 1970s, and we sat side by side on city council. The idea that a Kamloops kid could become Premier of this province is something worth being proud of.

When you left the Mayor’s office, CFJC’s James Peters described you this way: if your provincial career mirrors your civic one, you’ll be remembered as capable, knowledgeable, not flashy but steady.

Pete, lean into that. Steady and honest is exactly what British Columbia needs right now — and I hope you won’t sacrifice that reputation by pandering or oversimplifying complex issues to win a news cycle.

Which brings me to my concerns.

In a recent campaign video, you described the NDP’s decriminalization pilot as David Eby’s“reckless act” and pledged to “restore order and take back control of our streets.” I understand the political appeal of that language.

But it’s worth remembering that the decriminalization project had support from police leadership and public health experts, was always framed as a pilot in response to a genuine crisis — and it ended early.

Framing urban policy in apocalyptic terms risks something real: making people afraid of the very cities we want them to love and invest in.

You led a government at the local level. You know none of this is easy when you are one of the decision makers.

You and I both know this isn’t new territory. In the spring of 2017, we both supported mobile supervised consumption sites in Kamloops. That, too, was called a pilot project.

I went back and watched your comments at that council meeting, and I was reminded of what made you so effective as a mayor. You talked about weighing the pros and cons carefully. You acknowledged community concerns with respect. And then you said, on balance, you could support the sites — given the severity of the crisis, the mobile nature of the program, and the conditions council had asked of Interior Health.

That is good governance. Thoughtful, balanced, and honest about complexity. I hope, if you’re given the humbling opportunity to serve as Premier, you’ll depend on your strong local government foundation.

One more thing. A former elected colleague of ours reached out to me recently — unprompted — after hearing your comments to Rebel News that there are only two genders. He asked me, if we still had any rapport, to pass along a simple request: more empathy for the trans community.

I’ve thought about how to raise this. I respect that you hold a sincere belief. What I’d ask is that you also hold space for the safety and dignity of all British Columbians — whatever their gender or gender identity. The culture wars make for good fundraising emails and bad governance. Tread carefully there, Pete. Or better yet, don’t tread at all.

Good luck, my friend.

Arjun

Arjun Singh is a former Kamloops City councillor and is currently the executive director of the Kamloops Local News Society, which publishes the Kamloops Chronicle. This column also appears in the April edition of the Chronicle. He can be contacted at info@kamloopschronicle.com.