A former Kamloops MLA and senior BC Liberal cabinet minister is now officially the federal Liberal candidate for the Kamloops Thompson Cariboo in this fall’s election.

Terry Lake was acclaimed at a party event attended by the Prime Minister in Kamloops Tuesday night.

In his speech Lake threw support to the Trans Mountain pipeline, took shots at the Conservative Doug Ford government in Ontario, and pledged the Liberals will build a strong  team of MPs in the B.C. Interior.

Lake says climate change is a big election issue and he disputes any suggestion people will not vote over the issue.

“Right now they are dealing with a rank six fire in Alberta. It is May. We have already have had wildfires around us here in Kamloops. I have been living in working in central Canada where we have had once in a hundred year floods every two years and we have had tornadoes rip apart communities. I think people are impacted in a personal way by climate change and I do think it is a motivator for people. I do think people will vote on that issue.”

Lake, when asked if the Trudeau brand was a little tarnished, said that is part of the bruising a party gets when it tackles the hard work of governing.

What about those huge deficits?

“That has to be put into perspective. As a percentage of GDP it is very small, the smallest in the G7. Should we be balancing the budget? Yes I do believe we need a plan to balance the budget. I am used to governments that do that. I think it is a way you run your household and it is a way you should run governments. Investing in communities and having debt on the capital side is one thing. On the operating side I think the goal should always be, on average, to balance your budget.”

The riding has long been a tug of war between the NDP and Conservatives so does the New Democrats fielding a political novice help his cause this fall?

“To be completely honest yes I think it does. We have people who vote in what is termed a progressive way, although I don’t really like that term because Conservatives can be progressive as well, but if you are from the middle right to middle left you tend to vote Liberal or NDP. So if you are not voting NDP because of the candidate you don’t perceive as strong perhaps some of that vote will come over. But I am not taking that for granted at all.”

Lake says campaigns matter.

He will face Conservative incumbent Cathy McLeod.

Gina Myhill-Jones is running to become the NDP candidate with a nomination meeting set for this weekend.

The Greens and Peoples Party of Canada will all name candidates soon.