When federal Liberal leadership candidate Joyce Murray does the math, there are 18 million Canadians who didn’t vote for Prime Minister Stephen Harper or his Conservative majority government.

Which is why she’s proposing the Liberals work co-operatively with the New Democrats and Green Party to oust the Tories from office when the country returns to the polls in 2015.

“I see it as a necessity,” Murray said Friday. “A sustainable society is not sustainable if our democracy is under attack.”

Murray visited the city Friday night as part a Canadian tour to drum up support before the party elects a new leader April 14.

She was at The Ploughman’s Lunch in downtown Kamloops talking with young Liberals and other members of the public who wanted to stop in.

A key part of her platform is the non-compete pact among parties in the next federal election. She believes people are tired of the divisive, and toxic atmosphere in parliament and what the ruling government is doing to the environment.

“People have lost confidence in their representatives,” said Murray. “That ties into the first-past-the-post (electoral) system that rewards negative behaviour.”

She said the system can be influenced by electoral spending and negative campaigning.

“Our current system is not representative,” said Murray.

She proposes opposition parties hold a run-off to decide who would run in ridings the Conservatives won in the last election despite having less than 50 per cent of votes.

In those ridings, Murray would empower the riding association to have an open and democratic process with the Greens and NDP to ensure there’s one candidate carrying the progressive banner, she said.

She also supports a carbon tax and the legalization, taxation and regulation of marijuana.

Murray is no stranger to Kamloops, saying her daughter, Dawn Brinkman, is in charge of projects for West Fraser Mills in the region. She said she’s visited the area twice in the last year.

There are nine candidates vying for the leadership of the federal Liberals.