No better choice for northern British Columbians, says Fulmer

B.C. Conservative leadership candidate Yuri Fulmer said if elected he would provide “real leadership” to British Columbians.

Fulmer, a business leader based in Vancouver, said he believes the B.C. NDP has neglected the North and that, as the next leader of the B.C. Conservative Party and potentially the next premier, he would restore services he said have been neglected.

“I can’t continue to watch what’s happening to our province. We used to have a deal between government and the people where we all paid taxes and in return we got great health care, good education for our kids, safe streets to live on and good family supporting jobs. But that that deal with the government is broken right now, I want to restore those services that British Columbians rely on. I want to build an economy that’s going to thrive in British Columbia and I want to make sure British Columbians are taken care of.”

Fulmer added that if northern British Columbians want critical services restored, the Conservative party is the only choice.

“I think if people in the North want real leadership, that’s going to provide them with the services that they need. They don’t have a choice other than Conservatives. We’re running a $13.5 billion deficit under the NDP right now. Emergency rooms are closed, maternity wards are closed, pediatric wards are closed, and the streets aren’t safe anymore. And we’ve got a problem in British Columbia that’s only going to get worse under the NDP.”

After former Conservative leader John Rustad’s resignation due to a loss of confidence in the party, with many members voting to remove him, Fulmer said he does not believe it caused a divide.

“I don’t think the party is as divided as the NDP would like you to believe it is. I think Conservatives are independent-thinking people, They’ve got their own ideas, and that’s the way it should be as a party. We need to stay focused so for me as leader, what I would say to the party and what I’d say to British Columbians is there’s a lot of big problems that we’ve got to solve,” he said.

“I think we all agree on what the problems are, it’s health care. It’s the economy. It’s safety on our streets. It’s affordability. Those are the issues British Columbians want us to work on wherever they are in the province. So we’ve got to get to work on providing solutions to those problems. And I think we can all be unified behind that.”

With many British Columbians concerned about property rights and Indigenous rights Fulmer says Private property rights need to be upheld and Indigenous groups and non-Indigenous people need to work towards a mutually beneficial solution.

“We cannot have British Columbians fearful of losing their homes, this has never happened since Confederation. Private property rights have to be sacrosanct, it doesn’t matter who is coming after your private property nobody should be able to take your house away from you. It’s your family’s biggest asset,” said Fulmer.

“On the question of reconciliation, we have to focus on economic reconciliation. We have to lift every community together. We can’t have indigenous communities prosper at the expense of non-Indigenous communities. And we can’t have non-Indigenous communities prosper at the expense of indigenous communities. We have to raise everybody up together. So we all benefit from what this province contains.”