Todd Doherty is gathering the signatures for his nomination papers.
The Cariboo-Prince George MP expects the Liberal government to imminently call an election and plans to hit the ground running for his third consecutive term in office as the Conservative Party representative.
“I think the possibility for a writ-drop for going into a federal election any day now, I think it’s crazy,” said Doherty. “We’re in the middle of state of emergency here in the province with the wildfires. We’ve got communities that are under evacuation (orders) and many of them are on alert, and we don’t know about the fourth wave (of the COVID-19 virus) either.
“So there’s a lot of concern about that in terms of being able to conduct a federal election safely.”
Doherty said the election will likely happen in late September.
“We’ll do what we to do, and we’ll get out and see people and I’ll be campaigning for my third term,” said the 52-year-old Doherty.
Doherty was named to Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s shadow cabinet in August 2020. Originally elected in 2015, Doherty previously served under former leader Andrew Scheer as the transportation critic. He also has held the fisheries critic portfolio.
“I just love this community,” Doherty said. “I love the people of my riding and the region. We’ve got good people in this region who deserve a strong voice and somebody to fight for them. It’s not always about being partisan, it’s about building relationships and making sure that people know who their Member of Parliament is, and they can walk up to them.
“We don’t always do the right thing. We make mistakes and we’re human and we truly believe in this region and we’re fighting for every opportunity that we can.”
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is seeking a majority government after Trudeau was elected to his second term as prime minister in 2015. The Liberals won 157 of the 338 seats in the most recent election, in October 2019, while the Conservatives captured 121 seats and 34.4 per cent of the popular vote.
In 2019, Doherty drew 28,848 votes (52.7 per cent), with Liberal candidate Tracy Calogheros second in the vote for the Cariboo-Prince George seat with 10,928 votes (20 per cent).
