The Cariboo-Chilcotin riding will see only two parties battling it out after John Kidder of the BC Green Party did not make it onto the final ballot.
The list of candidates for B.C.’s 43rd provincial election has been finalized, and Kidder was unable to obtain enough nominating signatures before the Sept. 28 deadline.
Kidder — who was a founder of the BC Green Party in 1982 — announced on Sept. 10 that he was the party’s nominee in Cariboo-Chilcotin. However, on Sept. 30 he sent a statement he had contracted COVID, which had hit him hard and left him isolating and unable to collect the 75 signatures necessary for his nomination papers.
“I was looking forward to challenging the other candidates on their parties’ lack of initiative on climate change, a growing cause of damage and heartbreak all over our region, and to presenting solid Green policies for housing, health care, drug addiction, and rural community support,” Kidder said in a statement.
“I was so confident about getting the necessary signatures that I left it until the last possible week, and getting sick made it impossible. I am very sorry to have let down my friends, colleagues, and supporters. I apologize to the citizens of Cariboo-Chilcotin for my failure to provide them with an option to the polarized old-line choices they are left with.”
The two candidates on the ballot in Cariboo-Chilcotin are Lorne Doerkson (BC Conservative) and Michael Moses (BC NDP).
Doerkson was first elected as an MLA in 2020, when he ran for the BC Liberal (later BC United) Party. In May 2024 he announced that he was leaving BC United and joining the BC Conservative Party. A long-time resident of the Cariboo-Chilcotin, Doerkson has worked in many different industries, including a 20-year term in the newspaper business, followed by time in the automobile industry. He is currently self-employed in financial services.
Moses was first elected as a councillor in Williams Lake in 2022. He is an Indigenous entrepreneur of Secwépemc and Nlaka’pamux descent who grew up in Williams Lake, and his business is dedicated to empowering Indigenous business owners and artists in the fields of digital marketing and e-commerce.
In his Sept. 30 statement, Kidder said that he had not intended to recommend either the BC NDP or the BC Conservatives to voters in Cariboo-Chilcotin. However, he noted that in light of BC Conservative leader John Rustad’s statement that he would repeal the B.C. legislation adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Rustad “is not suitable to be premier.”
“The Conservative candidate in our riding is a fine hard-working representative, but he does not deserve his leader,” said Kidder. “Nor do the people in Cariboo-Chilcotin.”
