Premier Christy Clark speaks to Kelowna's Liberal Party supporters at the Coast Capri Hotel on Wednesday night.

(JULIE WHITTET / iNFOnews.ca)

Premier Christy Clark made a brief stop on her campaign tour this evening to speak to Kelowna citizens at the Coast Capri Hotel.

She greeted the audience by praising the city's pro-business heritage.

"Hello Kelowna! Here we are in the home where free enterprise was founded,” she said.

Clark turned to Liberal MLAs Steve Thomson, Norm Letnick and Ben Stewart, praising them for their work in bringing $1.5 billion in investments to the city.

"It all starts here with three incredible candidates we have, Steve, Norm and Ben, three men who have served their communities so well," she said.

She urged the audience to re-elect all three MLAs to make sure they come back to Victoria on May 14.

Of the major investments brought by the Liberal Party over the last 12 years, Clark highlighted the W.R Bennett Bridge, the widening of Highway 97 to four lanes, the Kelowna Rapid Transit Project, upgrading the Kelowna General hospital, building the Interior Heart and Surgical Centre and investing $33 million dollars in the trades building in Okanagan College.

"Twelve years ago UBCO didnt even exist," Clark said, adding, "now our kids have the skills they need to be first in line for jobs."

The major focus of Clark's speech was the goal of making British Columbia debt-free for future generations. She says this depends on the natural gas industry.

"We take revenues we will get from exporting our natural gas in Asia at a hugely higher price and take those revenues and put them in a prosperity fund – lock it up for our kids," she says.

Clark shared some of her personal history, saying her family went through tough financial times when she was a child growing up in a three bedroom home in South Burnaby.

"My dad was a public school teacher and my mom was a stay-at-home mom. And we didn't have a lot of money back in those days," she said. “My parents would have been absolutely ashamed of themselves if they had left any of us with even a penny of debt - and they didnt do that.”

With problem-solvers like Stewart, Thomson and Letnick, Clark says she's confident Kelowna can reach those goals.

Clark gestures to Liberal MLAs Steve Thomson, Ben Stewart and Norm Letnick, saying, "three men that you can always count on to serve you to the best of their ability."

(JULIE WHITTET / iNFOnews.ca)

To contact the reporter for this story, email Julie Whittet at jwhittet@infotelnews.ca or call (250)718-0428.

News from © iNFOnews, 2013