Photo: Michael Potestio

Conservative incumbent Frank Caputo (left) squared off against Liberal challenger and former colleague Iain Currie (right) during an all-candidates' debate on Tuesday.

Former colleagues turned political foes provided some fireworks during the final debate among those looking to represent the Tournament Capital in the nation's capital — Liberal Iain Currie providing the offence and incumbent Conservative Frank Caputo on the defensive.

Verbal jabs flying between the two Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola candidates at times sucked the air out of the room during Tuesday night's forum, hosted by the Kamloops & District Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Castanet.

Caputo and Currie are no strangers to argument or one another. Both are criminal lawyers, and they worked together as prosecutors in the Kamloops Crown counsel office for the better part of a decade.

During the debate, Currie accused Caputo of failing to address the type of crime impacting local businesses and instead politicizing the issue. He also said Caputo was failing to advocate for his constituents by not adequately supporting a City of Kamloops application for a housing-related federal grant — an allegation Caputo dismissed as misinformation.

Currie said Caputo spread misinformation himself when he shared a photo of a phoney document on social media said to have been found inside a Canadian prison. He suggested Caputo retract the post.

Caputo 'fighting back'

Caputo said Currie fired the first shot and said he was trying to be cordial.

“I actually never initiated anything,” he said. “I’m always up for an amicable debate, but when people are going to tell falsehoods that impede my credibility, I will always fight back.”

Currie, in his opening statement, said people of the riding deserved a voice in Ottawa in the party that forms government, and said as MP he would “bring a relentless focus to your issues and your concerns” — taking square aim at Caputo.

“This hasn't been the focus of your MP over the last four years. It will be mine,” Currie said.

He did not agree with the instigator label and said he was just pointing out the benefits of having a Liberal MP if the polls are accurate and Mark Carney's party forms government.

Currie said his opening statement wasn’t intended to be personal or a “jab at Frank,” rather a commentary on what residents of the riding have seen the last four years.

Eye on the ball?

Currie said he thinks Caputo hasn’t been focused enough on issues that matter to people in the riding.

“The things that Frank has been paying attention to include renaming of child sex abuse images [and] what's Paul Bernardo doing in prison in Quebec,” Currie told Castanet, referencing an investigation Caputo undertook regarding living conditions at a federal prison that houses notorious inmates.

When he announced he was running, Currie said he considered Caputo a friend. Asked whether he still considered Caputo a friend following the debate, he said he did.

“As far as I'm concerned, Frank is absolutely a friend,” he said.

Asked the same question, Caputo said there's a cordiality and respect that must be shown among candidates and his goal was to observe that to the highest degree possible.

Shots fired on crime

When crime came up on Tuesday night, Currie said he would seek to make community impact statements mandatory for judges to consider at sentencing, to give businesses and others in the community a say in that process.

“I know the statistics as to what businesses are dealing with here. Judges sentencing people don't, and they need to,” Currie said.

In his response, Caputo highlighted his private member's bill on bail reform and touched on Currie’s proposal, saying he’s already hearing people’s community impact statements as MP.

"As Conservatives, we’ll deal with these things," he said. "Rather than free drugs, you can get free treatment."

Currie shot back saying Caputo's bail bill dealt with an issue separate from the street crime impacting Kamloops businesses. He said mandatory minimum sentences and consecutive life sentences are not the answer.

“It's a real problem around our community," he said, "Let's start with real solutions.”

Caputo retorted, describing Currie’s answer as dismissive of the impact such crime has on a business.

Housing Accelerator Fund

On a question of restoring home ownership for young people, Caputo was critical of the Liberal plan to get the government into the business of building houses. Conservatives, on the other hand, want to cut taxes and give cities more funding if they build more homes to incentivize construction.

Currie pointed out the apparent muzzling of Conservative MPs by Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre last fall, when he ordered they no longer support municipalities seeking money through the Housing Accelerator Fund, which Poilievre intended to scrap to help pay for another tax cut.

The Housing Accelerator Fund is a $4.4-billion program doling out dollars to local governments that cut red tape to build more homes. Caputo was among 17 Conservative MPs that wrote to the government asking for some of that money on behalf of constituents.

Caputo maintained he stood up for Kamloops by writing the letter in the first place, and he read from a letter of thanks he received from city hall to prove it.

“Nobody told me I couldn't write the letter," he said. "I will write whatever the heck I want. I'm not a Liberal. I get to do what I want."

Caputo asked Currie to apologize a number of times for his comments about the letter.

Controversial tweet

During a question about the media and information, Currie put Caputo on blast for a controversial tweet from April 13.

Caputo and a Conservative candidate in Ontario shared a photo of a fake Government of Canada letter.

That Ontario candidate claimed the document was found in a prison by a correctional officer. He accused the Liberals of trying to win votes from convicted criminals by attacking Conservative crime policies. Correctional Services Canada has asserted the document was fake and that no copies have been found by prison officials.

Caputo’s post said CSC “remains an abject failure on all fronts.”

Currie challenged Caputo to retract. Caputo said the whole controversy made him laugh.

“I was actually chuckling about this tweet because people were texting me. I got a text yesterday and a text today, and I was like, 'What's the deal?' Like what's the big issue? And I realized people thought that I thought the document was real," Caputo said at Tuesday's debate.

"Anybody who looked at this document from the jail should have known it was fake. If you think that document was real. I welcome you to Canadian politics. It was so obvious it wasn't. The issue was that the document was found in a jail."

Caputo said the allegation was that the letter was planted by the Liberals, not that the document was genuine.

“Still no apology on the Housing Accelerator Fund," he said on the debate stage. "I guess some people think that we should apologize for ambiguity, but we shouldn't apologize when we say things here that are contrary to what is factual."

No doubt - @CSC_SCC_en remains an abject failure on all fronts.

Sex offenders living next to kids in jail. Paul Bernardo in medium (next to a hockey rink/tennis court) and now this.

Commr. Anne Kelly - where are you? Minister David McGuinty - where are you? pic.twitter.com/rziaECmvON

— Frank Caputo (@FrankCaputoKTN) April 13, 2025

'Tea-sipping urbanites'

During a question on gun control, Caputo accused Currie of being at odds with his party’s stance.

“He called them 'tea-sipping urbanites' when it came to firearms," Caputo said. "So I cede the floor to him and I invite him to answer that question in which he put down Liberals and his leader."

In response, Currie thanked Caputo for the shout out.

“Frank has obviously been reading my Ask Me Anything thing that I did on Reddit the other day," Currie said.

"Actually I'm pretty proud of that phrase, tea-sipping urbanites, and I wish I could quote myself more because I thought my answer was pretty good."

Currie said he would like to see his party's stance on firearm classification change.

Election day is Monday.

See for yourself

Watch Tuesday night's debate in its entirety below. The first half features candidates from the Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies riding, while Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola candidates duke it out in the second half.

The event was hosted by the Kamloops & District Chamber of Commerce with help from Castanet, CFJC-TV and the North Shore and Kamloops Central business improvement associations.