The BC Conservative leader may be on a "listening tour" of the Interior, but he has a pretty firm grasp of what he would like to see as a party platform.
John Cummins stopped in Prince George Wednesday in a bid to build up a constituency association in what has been a Liberal stronghold for the past decade.
Chief among Cummins' belief system is that the provincial economy needs to grow, and part of that will come from B.C. moving forward on natural resource projects.
"People are prepared to make an investment in this province. The government has to be prepared to work with them," Cummins said, in a wide-ranging interview that touched on the Enbridge pipeline, forming a right-wing coalition with the Liberals and infrastructure funding.
Cummins is staunchly in favour of the Northern Gateway Pipeline project, which would see oil piped from Alberta to the B.C. coast, so long as there is a rigorous environmental review process as well as a piece of the profits.
"British Columbia is putting up its turf for these pipelines, essentially. We're taking the risk. Some of the revenue has to flow to British Columbia. We can't do this for nothing," he said, adding the communities along the pipeline route should be the major beneficiaries of any profit sharing.
Taking a firm stance on issues like this is where the former Conservative MP said his party differs from the Christy Clark-led Liberal party, which has reportedly reached out to form a free-enterprise coalition.
"The B.C. Liberals, in my view, are a discredited bunch," said the 70-year-old Ontario native, calling the move one of desperation. "They're trying to gain some credibility by attracting B.C. Conservatives... The only thing they're going to do is drag us down, too."
Cummins said he believes his party can gain enough traction between now and the May 2013 election to form government, but at worst at least prevent an NDP majority.
"There's no net benefit from joining the B.C. Liberals," he said.
There is also no benefit from being endorsed by the federal Conservative party. Though he represented the party from 1993 to 2004, and fellow provincial party members are also card-carrying Conservatives, Cummins said the B.C. Conservatives are not "federal Conservative-lite by any stretch."
Having a federal endorsement makes it difficult to speak up against Harper policies, which Cummins continues to do.
"I don't like the way the feds watered the environmental process down with [Bill] C-38. That's not what British Columbians want," he said.
What B.C. residents do want is a way to fix their crumbling infrastructure, and that's where moving ahead on the pipeline project could play a key role, according to Cummins.
He's not wildly in favour of the idea of a gas tax to pay for municipal projects, like the one proposed by Prince George Coun. Brian Skakun.
He used the Lower Mainland as an example, where municipal leaders wanted to add a two cent-per-litre gas tax to pay for a new SkyTrain line.
"We're already paying the highest gas taxes anywhere in North America. We can't just be the gravy train and shovel money out of the back of the pickup," Cummins said. "I'd rather see the economy grow better, have revenues flow out of a pipeline to pay for that kind of stuff than I would necessarily raising a gas tax. I guess that's an option that will be made by the city here."
