Kathy Kendall.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

The B.C. NDP candidate for Kamloops-North Thompson grew up in a middle-class family “when middle-class meant you were doing well” and has always had a passion for helping others. Because of this Kathy Kendall chose to enter the world of law and quickly took a job working for Legal Aid. It is also why she has chosen to enter the world of politics.

As a life-long NDP supporter, the jump to candidate was just something Kathy Kendall had do to.

“I heard something on the radio and just thought to myself, we have to do better than this,” she says of her ah-ha moment that led to her nomination run in summer of 2011.

As a self-employed lawyer Kendall has easily been able to fit in the needs of being a candidate, something she acknowledges not everyone can do. Having a flexible schedule has helped her deal with the learning curve that comes along with going from campaign volunteer to candidate.

“I can go about my busy schedule, guilt free – though the laundry doesn't do itself,” Kendall jokes.

Kendall says she has been a strong advocate for the less fortunate throughout her career, so a big part of her platform runs on addressing the needs of low and middle class citizens. Jobs, economy and healthcare are big concerns for a lot of her constituents where a lot of families are low-income.

She wants to see investment in skills training and forestry to help create local jobs so families do not have to send the wage-earner away to the oil sands to work. Sustainable jobs would help strengthen the rural communities as well as Kamloops, Kendall believes, but a poverty reduction plan also needs to be in place to help give low-income families opportunities.

“It's my motivation. My background is what it is because of who I am,” Kendall says of her career in Legal Aid and the opportunities she wants to see in place for low-income people, “I was able to go to university without any student debt, to law school without any debt. I want that for other people.”

Aside from working and now campaigning for those in need, Kendall has also spent a lot of her spare time volunteering around Kamloops and has gone on several volunteer adventures with her daughter to countries like Ethiopia.

While Kendall is basing her campaign on helping her constituents by fixing the issues she sees on a daily basis, she says, “This election is really about trust. We've said what we're going to do, costed what we're going to do, and clearly stated our intentions with taxes.”

Kendall says her party will offer no surprises when it is elected, something people on the doorstep have shown appreciation for. Though she has complete confidence in her leader Adrian Dix – who she says made a mistake in the past but owned up to it - she knows the race is far from over in both the North Thompson and B.C. on the whole.

“I'm not confident, we're always a step behind, it's how we campaign. You never know what the voters are going to do. Hopefully it (what we've campaigned for) will resonate.”

Your other Kamloops-North Thompson candidates:

Ed Klop, Conservative

Terry Lake, Liberal (incumbent)

To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca or call (250) 819-3723.

News from © iNFOnews, 2013