B.C. Election: Gamble doesn’t pay off for five ex-BC United MLAs who ran as Independents

The results are in — kind of — and it turned out not to be a great night for the five ex-BC United candidates running as Independents in Saturday’s election.

Coralee Oakes, an Independent who ran in the Prince George-North Cariboo riding, lost to Conservative Party of BC candidate Sheldon Clare. Oakes was first elected as an MLA in 2013 and served in shadow positions throughout the years.

When BC United Leader Kevin Falcon announced in late August that his party wouldn’t run any candidates, Oakes and many of her colleagues faced difficult decisions.

She decided to strike it out on her own, attempting to convince her constituents that an Independent MLA could effectively highlight regional concerns — something she says gets hampered by working in a party.

Karin Kirkpatrick, the one-term BC United MLA and shadow critic, had actually announced her retirement before the party imploded.

She then threw herself back into politics as an Independent, saying moderate voters needed a place to park their allegiances.

Even with some high-profile endorsements from current and former MLAs and city councillors, Kirkpatrick wound up third in the West Vancouver-Capilano riding.

“What we’ve learned through this, I think this is marketing 101, is that you need a name that people recognize and can connect with you,” Kirkpatrick told 1130 NewsRadio on Sunday.

She’s laying the blame for lack of name recognition squarely “at the feet of leadership for BC United.”

“A decision was made without consultation with thousands of members of that party,” she said.

Kirkpatrick says she’s going to focus on rebuilding a centrist party for B.C. going forward.

“British Columbians have said that they are valuing the brand name over the character of the candidate, and we just have to be alive to the fact that that means that we need a party,” she added.

In the end, voters for all five ex-BC United candidates — Oakes, Kirkpatrick, Peace River South candidate Mike Bernier, Kootenay-Rockies incumbent Tom Shypitka, West Vancouver-Capilano’s Karin Kirkpatrick, and Peace River North incumbent Dan Davies — felt their interests were best served by the BC Conservatives.