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OTTAWA — A rookie B.C. Liberal MP is rejecting suggestions that he bolt from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s caucus to protest approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project.

Terry Beech, breaking a weeklong silence after Trudeau announced approval last week, said in an exclusive Postmedia interview that he is accepting the “difficult reality” that Trudeau’s cabinet made the decision despite vocal objections by him and a clear majority of his constituents.

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But he’s not about to jump ship.

“One of the strangest questions I’ve received consistently over the last number of days is, ‘Are going to cross the floor? Are you going to become an independent?’” said the MP for Burnaby North-Seymour, otherwise known as ground zero for the project that will triple the capacity of the company’s pipeline to 890,000 barrels a day.

“I campaigned on a platform that I believed in, and I have a broad variety of issues that I still need to deliver on,” he said, citing housing affordability, public transportation on the North Shore, and the need for a national climate plan.