Rob Morrison officially opened his Cranbrook constituency office on Thursday, which will serve as his headquarters as Kootenay-Columbia’s Member of Parliament, while also speaking to his recent work in Ottawa and his priorities for 2020 and beyond.
Morrison officially held a grand opening event that was open to the public from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, as the constituency office is prominently placed in Cranbrook’s downtown, just off of Highway 3. Officially located at 800-C Baker Street, Morrison’s office shares the same brick building as Cranbrook Photo and the Hearing Loss Clinic.
Catching up with Morrison at the event, the Kootenay-Columbia MP told MyEastKootenayNot.com that he was excited to unveil the office and continue along the crazy string of events since he bested former NDP MP Wayne Stetski in the federal election.
“It’s been a whirlwind since October 21st and going to Ottawa was really an eye-opener for me, met some good friends on all different parties,” said Morrison. “It’s really interesting to work collaboratively with everyone and we all have the same goal, we want to make things better for Canadians.”
Morrison (45.1%) collected nearly 30,000 votes in his victory over Stetski (34.2%) as the incumbent seeking re-election garnered just south of 23,000 votes.
More: Rob Morrison Wins Kootenay-Columbia Riding (October 21, 2019)
Since his election victory, Morrison was officially sworn-in as a Member of Parliament, spoke in the House of Commons and begun his advocacy for the Kootenay-Columbia riding.
“What I’ve done already is get up in the House of Commons and talk about priorities for Kootenay-Columbia and that’s our softwood lumber, so I want to make sure we get that voice out to the government, which is the Liberals, make sure they know how important it is for us for softwood,” said Morrison. “Also for our mining communities and also for the energy sector because of everything that’s related to energy which is for us, tourism, it’s jobs, people who have direct jobs.”
Those are Morrison’s current focus points and some of the key items he will continue to push for in Ottawa in 2020 when Parliament resumes on January 28th.
“I think it’s important for me to get vocal in Ottawa and make sure that everyone knows what the priorities are here. Once we get back, we’re going to start forming committees, and that’s when I can get direct access to the committees who are making decisions based on priorities.”
Since his election as a Conservative MP, it’s been “interesting times” for the party, as Morrison described it. Morrison spoke to Andrew Scheer’s surprise resignation as leader of the party and the direction the Conservatives will be heading as they eye a majority government in the next federal election.
“I think Andrew Scheer did a good job,” Morrison told MyEastKootenayNow.com. “We won more seats, he mentioned it was a priority for him to be at home with his family, which is admirable and I give him credit for that. A lot of people have a hard time to do that so that’s where he wants to be with his five children. I think now we have an opportunity to pick a leader who is going to lead our party into the next election.”
For now, Morrison and the Conservatives will continue their work, eventually taking a customary break over the holidays and then returning to work like the rest of the House of Commons.
Morrison said that opening the Cranbrook constituency office is a milestone and that they will look at other permanent constituency offices in the spring, whether it be in Nelson or Revelstoke or elsewhere. Morrison was non-commital about when and where other offices may be set up, but he did say that their pop-up constituency offices will be normal occurrences across the riding in 2020, allowing residents in smaller communities such as Elkford or Sparwood to meet face-to-face with Morrison in the coming months.
