By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Frank Caputo will vote against implementing the Emergencies Act to address weeks-long Freedom Convoy protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates that have resulted in a vehicle-clogged downtown Ottawa and border blockades across the country.

“I will be opposing it,” Caputo told KTW, arguing implementing the act should be legislation of the last resort.

It is the stance interim Conservative Leader Candace Bergen has said her party is taking as Parliament on Thursday (Feb. 17) began debating the federal Liberal government’s temporary special measures, which were invoked Monday for the first time since the act was created in 1988 to replace the War Measures Act.