Sheldon Clare has been re-elected as the Prince George-North Cariboo MLA.
Clare received 69 per cent of the vote, equivalent to 10,814 votes, at the time of writing.
Opponents: Denise Bardua for the NDP came second with 3,182 votes, and Randy Thompson, the candidate for the BC Greens, was third with 1,485 votes.
“I’m incredibly grateful to the people of Prince George-North Cariboo, and to my team, everybody who donated, went out and put up a sign, asked for a sign, everybody, I thank them,” says Clare at his party at Heavy D’s in Quesnel on election night.
“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone that showed such confidence in me and in the Conservative Party of British Columbia.”
Clare says that while on his relatively short campaign because of the snap election, he heard many concerns across the riding. He says the Conservative Party will have its work “cut out” for them to come up with good solutions to what Clare called “complex problems”.
“We need to do the very best we can to listen to all the voices in our province to come up with the best solutions. Even those people who didn’t vote for us [the Conservative Party] have concerns that need to be listened to, and I think we’ve got to put it all together and come up with what’s best for B.C.”
The MLA Re-elected has several concerns he is prioritizing when he heads back to Victoria. First, on Clare’s list is the North-South Interconnector, as well as road projects he wants to see get put onto major projects lists. He also says getting more jobs, and stable jobs, back in the Cariboo will be an issue he will fight for, as well as reliable healthcare.
“We have a higher death rate in the north. There are reasons for that, and we need to look at them very closely and figure out why that’s happening, and what we can do to make things better up here.”
One aspect of the BC Legislature that Clare hopes can begin to be looked at and changed is giving MLAs more power to deal with concerns in their ridings more directly.
Provincially, it has been declared a Conservative majority, with the party securing 62 seats in the Legislature. The NDP have formed the provincial opposition with 29 seats so far, and the Greens have secured two seats so far.
NDP Leader David Eby announced his resignation as both premier and as the NDP Leader.
Clare is “thrilled” with the news of the Conservatives forming government.
“I think we’ve got some very good people, and these people have worked hard and will work hard. They are earning their victory, and we will have to earn it, and earn the people’s trust every day when we get into the legislature and fight for them.”
– story done by Teryn Midzain, My Cariboo Now staff
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