The Cranbrook Guardian: Adrian Dix Visit

Adrian Dix went on a whirlwind tour through the area yesterday. After arriving by plane and being greeted by Columbia Revelstoke candidate Norm Macdonald and this riding's NDP candidate Norma Blissett, the group arrived unannounced at Hot Shots to begin their tour, well prepared with coffee from one of our well loved local coffee stops. After boarding the big orange bus, the group toured the Elko saw mill where approximately 170 people are employed. These people work, live and contribute to our local economy and support secondary wood industries in this area and away. The party was given a tour of the planer mill which is of serious interest to all NDP candidates. At 2:15pm the group met with an enthusiastic crowd of local supporters at the Library's Manual Training Building and then it was off back to Vancouver for more of the campaign trail.

While addressing supporters in the afternoon, Mr Dix emphasized how important reinvesting in forestry is to this Province. They also talked about their support for mining, their confidence in the current selenium evaluation and future mitigation proposals by Teck. Both Dix and Blissett were clear in saying "Yes, to Mining", "Yes, to Forestry," " Yes, to Liquid Natural Gas" and of course, "Yes, to Tourism" but "No to Jumbo". Both Ms Blissett and Adrian Dix reaffirmed their own committment to the East Kootenay Regional Hospital ICU and were clear that there would be follow through on announcements already made. Child poverty and income disparities were also discussed. Child poverty in BC is some of the worst if not the worst, in the country and both candidates were emphatic in their intentions to do something about it. "I don't agree with the Liberals that we need to wait 10 years to address serious issues of poverty," said Dix.

He went on to say, "There are nine days left to elect an extraordinary MLA, a great candidate, Norma Blissett for Kootenay East."