MP Albas named to shadow cabinet
Two of the Okanagan’s three Conservative MPs have been named to the party’s shadow cabinet by new leader Erin O’Toole.
Dan Albas is the shadow minister for environment and climate change and Tracy Gray is the shadow minister for export promotion and international trade.
Given the economic and climatological realities in the areas they represent, Gray and Albas said they looked forward to the challenges of dealing with their new party positions.
“Living in the Okanagan region of B.C. over the past decade we have all witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of climate change,” Albas said in a statement.
“The once-in-200 year flood has come and gone twice in recent years. It is not uncommon to see temperature records being broken. The added heat and tinder dry forests create wildfires of a size and scope rarely seen before,” he said.
“Conditions can become so severe that air quality is seriously compromised,” Albas said, issuing his statement on which smoke from U.S. wildfires sent Okanagan air quality plummeting to its lowest level this year.
“Many sectors in Kelowna-Lake Country rely on international trade — ranging from aerospace to agriculture, manufacturing to tourism,” Gray said in a statement.
Gray endorsed O’Toole’s leadership bid but Albas was publicly neutral in the leadership race, won by O’Toole last week.
Albas riding includes downtown and central Kelowna, the Westside, Hedley, Keremeos, Olalla, Peachland, Princeton and Summerland. Gray represents the rest of Kelowna as well as Lake Country.
Mel Arnold, who represents the Conservatives in the Vernon-based riding of North Okanagan-Shuswap, did not land a shadow cabinet post.
After Parliament resumes in two weeks, O’Toole said the Conservatives would lay out their priorities for the COVID-19 economic recovery in Canada.
“In the coming weeks, we will be presenting a plan to put hardworking Canadians first, lead our nation out of this crisis, and rebuild our great country,” O’Toole said in a statement.
O’Toole’s predecessor, Andrew Scheer, will serve as infrastructure critic. Ontario’s Pierre Poilievre will be finance critic, and Alberta MP Michelle Rempel Garner will be health critic.