I lived and worked in Merritt for over a decade and knew our new Lt. Governor(ness?) and her late husband who operated the Guichon ranch east of Nicola lake. We were all active in the Reform Party movement.
She and others supplied me with data when I attended a fund raising barbecue at the Quilchena ranch, hosted by Guy Rose, a Liberal supporter. In attendance were the parachuted-in Liberal candidate (married to a local girl), his parents, campaign manager, political advisor (a California import), native Senator Len Marchand and other Liberal notables, along with a bus load of well wishers from Kamloops.
I was seated at a table with all but the candidate himself, the political advisor and the Senator, so I got the inside track.
After he did his party piece to polite applause, he was mine, and I cut him off at the knees with my questions, leaving him yamering and stammering. His campaign manager cut it short and asked me for my notes. I gave them to him, commenting that his boy needed all the help he could get.
The candidate couldn't even name the major towns and cities of the riding, larger than the country of Belgium. It was too easy and Guy Rose was shooting me daggers as the party broke up. No sense of humour, those LIberals .... ;>)
It was grass roots political activism 101, a great sport, second only to shooting.