Kamloops - Thompson - Cariboo

Located in B.C.'s central interior, this riding encompasses Kamloops, the villages of Clinton and Valemont, the District Municipality of One Hundred Mile House, and the Leon Creek No. 2, Kamloops No. 1, Canim Lake No. 1 and Skeetchestn reserves.

More than 10 per cent of residents are immigrants, and eight per cent are aboriginals. English is the mother tongue of 89 per cent of the population. Just over one per cent are French, and almost 10 per cent have a mother tongue other than one of the official languages.

The service sector and tourism are important to the riding's economy. Other big employers include Thompson Rivers University, formerly the University College of the Cariboo. The 2006 census shows an average family income of $71,607 and an unemployment rate of 6.8 per cent.

Kamloops riding was renamed Kamloops-Thompson in 2004 and took on small populations from Cariboo-Chilcotin and Prince George-Bulkley Valley.

Population: 114,675 (2006 census; an increase of 2.6% since 2001)

Political History

Conservative Betty Zane Hinton won a third term in 2006, edging out New Democrat Michael Crawford.

In 2004, Conservative Betty Hinton was re-elected for a second term.

This was NDP country from 1980 until 2000, when Hinton, then of the Alliance, unseated five-term New Democrat Nelson Riis, outpolling him by nearly 10,000 votes. In the three decades before 1980, this territory traded hands between the Liberals and Tories.

• 1979 - PC
• 1980-97 inclusive - NDP
• 2000 - CA
• 2004, 2006 - CON