Lorne Doerkson will be returning to Victoria for another four years.
The Conservative Party of B.C. candidate has been re-elected as the MLA for the newly-reconfigured Cariboo-Chilcotin riding, but whether he will take his seat as a member of the party in power or as a member of the opposition remains too close to call.
Doerkson, who previously served one term as MLA, had a comfortable victory over his only challenger in the riding, newcomer Michael Moses of the B.C. NDP Party. With 27 of 41 Final Voting Day ballot boxes, and six of seven Advance Voting ballot boxes, counted, Doerkson had 11,665 votes (70.09 per cent), while Moses had 4,979 votes (29.91 per cent).
Doerkson was first elected as MLA for Cariboo-Chilcotin in 2020, when he ran for the B.C. Liberal (later B.C. United) Party. On May 31, 2024 he announced that he was crossing the floor to join the B.C. Conservative Party, saying that he looked forward to joining “one of the largest grassroots movements” in B.C.’s political history.
He added that the decision was one of the toughest of his life. “I am an MLA first. My goals haven’t changed one bit, I want to represent the riding the best way I know how and everybody in it."
During his time with B.C. United, Doerkson served as the Opposition Critic for Rural Development and as the Official Opposition Deputy Whip. Prior to entering politics, he was a newspaper publisher and a financial consultant, and has been involved with the Williams Lake Stampede and the Williams Lake Chamber of Commerce.
"I’ve always believed that ridings like ours deserve strong representation in Victoria, especially in areas like health care, infrastructure, and industries like ranching, mining, and forestry," he told Black Press, citing health care as the biggest challenge facing the riding. "The Cariboo-Chilcotin region offers reasonable housing costs, and we must expand local incentives like rural retention bonuses to attract and keep healthcare professionals here."
Moses has been a resident of the Cariboo-Chilcotin for more than 30 years, and has been a city councillor in Williams Lake since 2022. His nomination as the B.C. NDP candidate in the riding was announced on May 21, at which time he said “I really just want to see changes in our communities that will help people have the opportunity to thrive."
Moses is a member of the Lower Nicola Indian Band and a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business in digital innovation and leadership. During the election campaign he positioned himself as an advocate for housing, health care, and reconciliation. He spoke of the need to keep taking action on climate change, telling Black Press "Cariboo-Chilcotin is a place where each of us has stories of wildfires, floods, or landslides. The climate crisis impacts our lives while costing our economy billions of dollars."
He added that Cariboo-Chilcotin is a great place to live, but noted that "Our challenges aren’t the same as those in urban areas. We’re taking action to strengthen services, speed up permitting, and support good, sustainable jobs for people close to home, so they can build a good life in the communities we love."
