Coralee Oakes, the BC Liberal MLA for Cariboo North, says the party’s suggested name change to BC United speaks to the inclusiveness in the party.
“We are actually in British Columbia a great big tent. We look at free enterprise, we have a lot of values to make sure that we represent a large cross section of British Columbians, and that includes both Conservatives and Liberals.”
Oakes says there were some other popular suggestions.
“The BC Party came up quite often. There were people that said bring back the Social Credit. There was United BC as an example, so a lot of the iterations that were brought forward talked about British Columbia, but the strong sense that people wanted to bring forward was they wanted to see a name that reflects a party that wants to ensure that we’re connecting both the urban and the rural communities.”
Oakes says the BC Party was already registered by another party.
She says a lot of people didn’t want the word ‘party’ in the name.
“A lot of people now, when you look at demographic shifts and you look at trends, a lot of people don’t necessarily belong to political parties, and we want to make sure we’re inclusive, that the policies that we’re putting out are open and inclusive for everyone.”
Oakes says the proposed name change will now be voted on before the end of the year, so that they are ready for the next election.
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