After 10+ years as an MLA, Coralee Oakes will no longer serve in that position a Sheldon Clare won the riding

By Tommy Osborne

PG-North Cariboo

Coralee Oakes thanks community, congratulates Sheldon Clare, amid election defeat.

Oct 19, 2024 | 10:02 PM

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.

As the night winds down, Oakes said she was grateful for the opportunity to serve as an MLA and elected official for so long.

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“I’d actually also like to say congratulations to the other candidates. It’s hard when you put your name forward, and the only way we preserve our democracy is if people participate and put their names forward. And look, I lost my first election, too. And I’m actually in the room tonight where I started my first campaign at age 20, so there was a lot of nostalgia tonight. Lots of really good people came out tonight. And I’m grateful for all of the support of many friends, family, and of course, our incredible campaign team,” Oakes said.

As of 10:00 p.m., Oakes had 4,240 votes, while Clare had 10,881.

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