The newly-selected candidate for the NDP in the federal riding of Columbia-Kootenay-Southern Rockies says party members started to pay attention to her campaign when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned.
"The last three weeks is when I started to get a lot of feedback from NDP members," Kallee Lins told the Nelson Star when her candidacy was announced at a gathering at the Adventure Hotel on Feb. 28.
"That has coincided with increased hope in staving off a Conservative government, as we've seen the leadership race emerge with the Liberals," she said.
Lins sees the possibility of another Liberal-NDP alliance like the supply-and-confidence agreement that existed in 2022 and 2023, in which the Liberal minority government committed to certain NDP priorities in exchange for NDP support in confidence votes.
Lins was nominated by the NDP after what organizers described as an "extremely close" race against Nelson business owner and city councillor Keith Page.
"It was a great voter turnout," said Page. "I often heard about how tough the choice was. I heard that from so many people, and the membership brought their wisdom to the table and chose the right candidate."
Lins, who is the executive director of the West Kootenay Regional Arts Council, got her start as an active NDP member during her college days under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.
"I just I remember how severe our previous Conservative government was," she said. "I feel like the integrity of our tax system is at stake. The integrity of climate action is at stake. The very existence of climate action is at stake. It's hard to imagine affordability getting even worse, but I believe it absolutely will under Pierre Poilievre."
A federal election could be called soon, and must be held before Oct. 20.
In 2023, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission altered the boundaries of the Kootenay Columbia riding and changed its name to Columbia-Kootenay-Southern Rockies.
The main changes were the addition of Fruitvale and Trail to the riding, and the transfer of Golden to the riding of Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies.
When the Kootenay-Columbia riding was formed in 1996, it was represented by the Reform/Alliance Party until 2003, and then by the Conservative Party until 2015. That year, NDP candidate Wayne Stetski was elected and served one term until the current MP Rob Morrison was elected for two terms for the Conservative Party.
In the 2021 federal election, Morrison achieved 43.2 per cent of the vote with Stetski at 36.9 per cent followed by the Liberal Party candidate Robin Goldsbury at nine per cent.
Also running in the upcoming federal election, in addition to Morrison and Lins, will be independent candidate Jim Wiedrick and People's Party of Canada candidate Andrew Skinner. The Liberal Party has not so far named a candidate.
