Castanet is running a series of candidate profiles in the run-up to the federal election on Monday, April 28. Between now and election day, we will publish Q&As with each of the candidates. Today, Castanet sits down with Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola Liberal Party candidate Iain Currie to see where he stands on key issues.

Castanet: U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and annexation threats have dominated a lot of the discussion early in the campaign. What is your take on the situation and what would you do to address it if elected?

Currie: I think it's super important that we be united as a country, and I think that was what was most remarkable for me when these threats started, when they became more serious and when they became very serious and a reality, which they are now.

How Canadians responded was to get our elbows up, to unite and and to push forward. Everyone stopped travelling to the States and trying to buy Canadian — and that's the best of us, and I think that's one of the reasons why the Liberal Party has gained in the polls and [Liberal leader] Mark Carney is popular with Canadians because they see a calm, rational voice.

We've already seen that calm and rational voice, someone experienced in leading through crises, has certainly calmed the situation. We certainly are not out of danger, the economies of the world are going to go through a very turbulent time over the next little bit, and we need a steady hand at the at the rudder, and that's Mark Carney.

Castanet: If elected, how would you make life more affordable for people, specifically in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola?

Currie: I'm anxious to work for the people of Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola to make things better. All of the parties have come out with various pledges. The one that I want to focus on for this riding is the Liberal housing plan to go backwards in time to highly successful programs that have worked in the past, particularly back to a time after World War Two when servicemen were coming home from the war and the Canadian government got into the business of building houses, and built affordable homes by the thousands.

The Liberal plan is to build 500,000 homes a year and to reinvest in housing, invest in building housing. Build Canada homes is a new program proposed that will involve the government being a builder of homes and investing in pre-fabricated homes. Investing in housing for seniors and students and essentially increase the supply of homes in this country, so that things can be much more affordable. That investment is a real opportunity for regions like ours, where there are entrepreneurs, where we do have an active forest industry. I’m excited about talking to people and advocating for the billions of dollars, which are promised to new housing, for that to come to Kamloops. I think that's a wonderful opportunity, in the face of risk, to improve the country and also to create great jobs in this area.

Castanet: What do you think needs to be done to address the housing crisis, and what's your party's take on how to solve it?

Currie: The Liberal plan is different from the Conservative plan. The Conservative plan is, I've heard described as a build 20 houses get one free plan. Cutting the GST for all housing, all new builds, up to $1.3 million without any safeguards.

It's just cutting taxes and the people who will most benefit are builders who are building several $1.29 million units. It really is not a very good plan for reducing the cost of housing. It's a plan for enriching those who can afford the huge amounts of money that are already being spent and they can have an incentive to build the most expensive houses and increase the profit in doing so.

Canadians don't like taxes. I don't know anyone who does, but simply cutting taxes on people who already don't need it is not a very good plan, and certainly is not going to make anything more affordable. It's not going to build the sort of housing that we need.

Castanet: How would your party balance economic interests with environmental and First Nations concerns when it comes to potentially fast tracking major projects?

Currie: I’m proud of the Liberal Party platform and plan, which involves investing in sustainable energy, as well as in the energy sector that we have now, and that's necessary in this time. Mark Carney is a world leading expert in greening the economy, along with allowing Canada to be self sufficient and to move away from our reliance on exports to the U.S.

I want to be a voice in Ottawa for this area and the concerns of all of us, including resource extraction, but not resource extraction at all cost, which is the Conservative plan that is ignoring all of the interests of Indigenous groups, of environmental groups and all of those concerns.

What is being suggested is a very sensible plan. There are multi-levels of government, and the Liberal plan involves having only one approval process for major infrastructure projects, cutting the red tape in half, or nearly so, and building Canada strong, but not doing so at the expense of our future, our environment and our Indigenous peoples.

Castanet: What would you do as MP to make sure small businesses here in Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola are positioned to succeed?

Currie: I think that it would be a big deal for Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola to have an MP in government who has the ear of the government and is able to pursue the programs the government has to offer — not based on ideology or fealty to the party, but rather working tirelessly to to bring the concerns of this area to Ottawa.

One of the most notable impediments to businesses we have [is] with homelessness, so a Housing First initiative, which is being proposed by the Liberal government, huge investments in housing and making housing affordable, as it was after World War Two, in my view, is an excellent and necessary first step.

But there also are opportunities building the Canadian economy in the face of the threats from the [United] States. There's threats, but that also brings real opportunity for investment, and the sorts of investments that we need and want in this area. We're a resource community, we're a university and training [community], we have the trades at TRU, and we have world leading entrepreneurs ready to be unleashed in this community. I want to facilitate that.

Learn more before you vote

Get ready to cast your ballot by finding out about all the Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola election candidates here.

Castanet is also partnering with the Kamloops & District Chamber of Commerce and community business improvement associations to host an online election forum on Tuesday, April 22, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Viewers can submit questions for candidates during the event, which will be live streamed on Castanet. Voters will be able to go back and watch after the forum has concluded.

All candidates in the Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola and Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies ridings have been invited to attend.