The representatives for Prince George-Valemount and Prince George-Mackenzie are eager to get going in government following Saturday’s provincial election.
The vote in the two ridings saw Conservative incumbent Kiel Giddens maintain his seat in Prince George-Mackenzie with 66.11 per cent of the vote, while Conservative incumbent Rosalyn Bird kept her seat in Prince George-Valemount with 51.05 per cent.
“I’m just so full of gratitude for the people of Prince George-Mackenzie for sending me to the legislature once again to represent them,” Giddens said. “Province-wide, British Columbians have said that they wanted a strong Conservative majority government to serve the province going forward, and we’re going to work very hard to do the best we can for the province.”
Bird said while she anticipated a Conservative win, she did not anticipate the party to win the substantive majority they did with 64 seats in the legislature.
“I thought we would do extremely well, I did think that Mr. Eby would be on his way out, but I honestly didn’t believe it was going to be that high,” Bird said. “It was an incredible surprise, I’m very excited [Saturday] night was for celebrating, and today is focused on the work ahead, so we have a lot of things that we need to get going on.”
Giddens said there’s plenty of work ahead for the new provincial government, with “a lot of problems that need common sense solutions.”
“I think that Lorne Doerkson and our Conservative team are ready to pull up our sleeves and do the hard work to serve the province,” he said. “We need to bring hope and optimism for young people to have an opportunity in this province going forward, and that’s what we’re going to be focused on.”
“He is a fantastic MLA, everybody in his riding knows him, you saw that by his percentage that he won [Saturday] night,” Bird said of Premier-designate Doerkson. “The other thing is he’s been the Deputy Speaker for the last couple of years, so he has been an incredible ambassador, not just for the Legislature, but for our province and our country. He is a remarkable leader that has an uncanny ability to get people on the same page. I think he is going to be an unbelievable Premier, he’s a very relationship-based person, which is what we need right now.”
Doerkson, the MLA for Cariboo-Chilcotin, will also be the most northern B.C. Premier since 1999, when North Coast representative Dan Miller of the NDP became the 32nd Premier of B.C. following NDP Premier Glen Clark’s resignation, which Bird said is exciting for the North.
“I don’t think it’s something they anticipated, but it brings people a different sense of hope that they’re going to have an elected representative in that level of leadership,” Bird said. “So I think that’s extremely exciting.”
Giddens shared that excitement.
“I think the North is where opportunity lies, this is where B.C.’s future is from our resources,” Giddens said. “I want to make sure we have a strong voice in the conversation, and I know Lorne, myself, and our Conservative team are ready to open the North and opportunities here for mining, oil and gas, as well as protecting forestry jobs wherever we can. Lorne gets that, we’ve worked together, and I know that he understands our region.”
Looking locally, Giddens said his first priority for Prince George-Mackenzie is ensuring the new acute care tower project continues to move along on schedule.
“I’m very worried about the election impacting the schedule for the project, but as well as protecting forestry jobs,” he said. “We have Northwood obviously closing at the end of the year, we need to do whatever we can to fight for those workers and opportunities, and protect what we have so the existing operations that we have in the region have a fighting chance to succeed. Those are jobs that I need to take on day one here.”
For Bird, she said she will continue to work towards her proposed inland port.
“That included a base, included a fire emergency damage training school, so I really want to keep working that forward,” she said. “Of course we have serious issues downtown that we need to address, which I think we can do with many people here locally, I mean yes, there should be some provincial help, but I think we have a lot of expertise right here in Prince George that could create some very effective and efficient grassroots types of solutions.”
Bird added healthcare is also a big concern.
“We have big concerns up here with our long-term care, we have Providence coming online, which is excellent but it’s not all we need,” she said. “Improving people’s access to family doctors, to specialists, if they have to travel for specialty medical care, that those costs are, if not completely covered, at least supplemented.”
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