Fraser Nicola Candidates (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

B.C. ELECTION 2024

Fraser-Nicola riding will have new MLA after 11 years of BC Liberals

Oct 2, 2024 | 5:10 PM

MERRITT, B.C. — The Fraser-Nicola riding has seen several changes since it was last contested in the 2020 election.

The electoral boundaries have changed with Ashcroft and Cache Creek no longer in the riding.

The riding includes Merritt, Lillooet, Spences Bridge, Logan Lake, Lytton, Boston Bar and Hope.

With three-term MLA Jackie Tegart announcing her retirement, the Fraser-Nicola riding will have a fresh face representing it in the legislature.

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The man with the most provincial politics experience is the Green’s Jonah Timms, who received 13 per cent of the vote in 2020.

“The NDP aren’t really that left party any more,” Timms said. “They have really moved to the centre. The Conservatives are very far to the right, some would say too far. So the Greens are really opening up our arms and saying, hey if you don’t want to vote for the NDP because you can’t stomach the NDP for whatever reason and you think the Conservatives are too far into the conspiracy theories, the Greens are here to offer really good, expert-driven policy, and [are] solutions orientated]

Before Tegart, the riding was held by the NDP and Harry Lali. Hoping to swing the riding back to orange is Francyne Joe, a Lower Nicola Band member and prior president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada.

“The most important thing is to listen to the people of this riding,” Joe said. “There are a lot of people who have worked in the forestry sector, mining sector, ranching sector, and I have identified with a lot of these families and that is what we need to return to — how can we responsibly move forward in an economic society that not only respects the work of the resources we manage but also considers in the future what are we going to pass on to our kids?”

The last two provincial elections in Fraser-Nicola havebeen decided by fewer than 500 votes, with 2020 won by less than 300 votes over the NDP candidate.

Filling the void on the right side of the political spectrum, left by the BC United collapse, is former Merritt councilor Tony Luck, who is expecting a tight race with the vote split possibility now gone.

“I think for the first time in quite a while in this province, this is going to be a critical election,” Luck said. “It’s about a philosophical change in our province and where we are going to be going. We continue the old way under a radical NDP and some of their policies around open drug use and things like that or we turn to the free enterprise system where there are more freedoms.”

All three candidates highlighted health care as a main concern of constituents at the door step.

Advanced polling opens on Oct. 10, with general voting day set for Oct. 19.