Coralee Oakes thanks community, congratulates Sheldon Clare, amid election defeat.
PRINCE GEORGE-NORTH CARIBOO – The Prince George-North Cariboo riding was won by BC Conservative Party Candidate Sheldon Clare, meaning that riding will be without longtime MLA Coralee Oakes. Having served as a BC United member prior to the party’s split, Oakes ran as an independent candidate. While the result wasn’t what she was hoping for, Coralee remained in high spirits following the results.
“First, I want to offer my congratulations to Sheldon and his entire team. Look, campaigns are tough. He worked hard, I wish him all the best. And I just wanted to say thank you to my incredible team, I have had some of the team on my campaign with me since 2005. I’ve been elected office in some capacity for almost two decades, and while it wasn’t the results that we were hoping for, we’re excited to finally get back into the private sector,” Oakes said.
While she won’t be serving as MLA, Oakes already has big plans in place to continue staying involved in the community and advocating for causes she believes in.
“I know that there’s lots of opportunities out there, and I already have some projects in mind next week. The first, we need to be supporting the College of New Caledonia. We need to be making sure we’re supporting the post-secondary institutions in our region. We need to make sure that we’re, supporting our health care. And I’m actually also looking forward to volunteering. That’s one of the biggest things that I’ve missed. Being an MLA is to be getting out into the community and voluntareeing, that fills me up, it fills my soul, so I’m looking forward to getting back out and doing that,” Oakes said.