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MLA waits for opposition

The contest for the Kootenay West MLA's seat, as of Feb. 26 - a one candidate race
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Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy

Like a front-running hockey team waiting for playoff berths to be filled, Katrine Conroy is a competitor in need of an adversary.

The New Democrat MLA for Kootenay West has her campaign apparatus ready to spring into action when the writ is dropped for the May 14 provincial election, but as of Late February there had been no declared candidates stepping forward on behalf of the BC Liberals, BC Conservatives or Green Party.

"I've heard rumors but nothing concrete," said Conroy on who may be providing the opposition to her re-election bid. "A few of the rumors I've heard have turned out to be wrong," she continued, "so I'm just waiting. But in the meantime we're working… we've got our election planning committee set up. We've been meeting, we're getting ready. We're not taking anything for granted. We're going to get out there and work hard to win this election."

Is the candidate frustrated by the lack of identifiable parties with whom to battle it out on the hustings.

"I don't know if frustrated is the word," she said, "interested is a word I might use. I don't think it matters as far as the Liberals go, who they put up, because they will be representing what the Liberals have represented in this province for the past 12 years. From my perspective it hasn't been particularly good for our area, that's what I'll be basing what I'm going out on and what we'll be proposing when our platform comes out."

Conroy says the high road will be the one taken when the race begins in earnest.

"We'll run a really good, clean campaign," she related. "We're going to be discussing the issues and the policies, presenting ours and debating theirs. That's where we'll be going with our campaign, in fact, our whole provincial campaign is going to be like that."

Spokespersons for the BC Liberals, BC Conservatives and the Green Party told the Castlegar News the  process of finding and vetting candidates for Kootenay West was underway, but as of February 21 no declarations of candidacy had been made.