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Kelowna-Mission NDP candidate Krystal Smith sits down with Castanet News

Krystal Smith: 1 on 1

Provincial government employee Krystal Smith is seeking a seat in the legislature for the BC NDP in the Kelowna-Mission riding.

Despite living in Victoria, Smith has taken on the challenge of a virtual election campaign.

Smith spoke with Castanet News her decision to enter the political arena, the government's pandemic record and issues important to Kelowna-Mission.

On her decision to run:

"There was some interest for local folks to run and nobody really committed and went forward with that. The party asked me if I would like to run. They know I love Kelowna and would like to live there full time. I was game...I would live to run, and represent the NDP in Kelowna-Mission. I have thought about running in the past, and when this opportunity came up I was like, you've got to jump in with both feet and do it."

On the government's health care record:

"If we look at long-term care facilities, they were staff at about 90 per cent when we took office. we have a plan to fix that and hire 7,000 new health care professionals with 2,000 of those to work in long-term care facilities to work with our seniors that have been particularly vulnerable during this pandemic.

"We've also seen the privatization and cuts that happened under the BC Liberal government that also affected long-term care facilities, where workers would cobble together hours from multiple facilities just to get full time work to make ends meet. They would be working in two or three facilities, and that puts themselves and patients in a vulnerable position, especially during a pandemic. That led to some of the cases where we saw COVID-19 spread in some of those facilities, unfortunately."

On economic recovery:

"Our economic recovery plan injected $30 million in grants to small and medium business, with a $10,000 top up to tourism operators which I think is particularly important to Kelowna-Mission and the Okanagan in general. In the last jobs report, we saw B.C. add 55,000 jobs. I think that is a key point saying we are doing a great job in economic recovery, and John Horgan and his team are the people to lead us through the pandemic."

On issues important to Kelowna-Mission constituents:

"Top of mind for people is health care, economic recovery and particularly tourism. In Kelowna, and the Okanagan we welcome people from all over the world usually, and we hope to be doing that again  very soon. This year it looked a little different with people visiting us from across B.C. We were lucky to see people come over and enjoy our beaches and wineries with us."

You can watch the entire interview below.

Read more BC Election 2020 coverage on Castanet here.



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