Campbell takes campaign to cowboy country
Last Updated: Saturday, April 18, 2009 | 7:58 PM PT
CBC News
B.C. Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell campaigned in the B.C. Interior on Saturday, visiting a rodeo in Williams Lake during a swing through the Cariboo region.
As the Liberal tour bus pulled up to the rodeo site, party supporters chanted "four more years," while those cheering for the New Democrats shouted "no more years."
Campbell donned his "Ralph Klein cowboy boots" for the occasion, which he said had been given to him by the former Alberta premier in 2005 as a gift to mark Alberta's centenary.
And while Campbell wasn't entered in any of the rodeo competitions, he did have to deal with a tough talking cow, which kept drowning out a conversation he was trying to have with rodeo official Roy Call.
Campbell joked that the animals may have heard some of his speeches, but Call suggested the speeches may have been those by federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.
The acting mayor of Williams Lake, Surinderpal Rathor, said the ranching, mining and forestry town has been pummelled by the economic downturn and people are looking to government for help.
At a rally at 100 Mile House later Saturday, Campbell reiterated the message that voting for the NDP is an economic risk during the global recession. He said the NDP doesn't understand how to support small businesses.
"Well I can tell you, you don't do it by adding $450 million to the payroll cost of small business," Campbell said. "That's going to do one thing. That recommendation from the opposition alone will cost 50,000 jobs across British Columbia."
After factoring in possibly doing away with the softwood lumber agreement and adding additional costs to B.C.'s energy industry, Campbell claims the policy positions stated by the NDP over the past few days are threatening a total of a 100,000 jobs.
The ridings of Cariboo-Chilcotin and Cariboo-North were slim victories for the NDP in the last election -- less than 300 votes in both cases.
The provincial election will be held May 12.
