Former Burns Lake mayor Chris Beach formally introduced himself as the acclaimed Liberal candidate for Cariboo-Prince George on Friday, March 28 during a noon-hour event at downtown restaurant Betulla Burning.
However, the Liberal Party of Canada does not currently recognize Beach as their candidate in the riding.
The federal Liberal campaign reached out to The Citizen after Beach’s launch event to say Beach has not been nominated. The party’s online list of candidates does not list Beach, nor any other nominees for Cariboo-Prince George or Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies as of Friday evening.
When asked about the situation Friday, Beach looked into it and later said he had been in contact with the BC arm of the campaign who told him he hadn't been 100 per cent greenlit as a candidate yet as they are trying to clear a backlog of 43 pending nominations. He said he has not been told that he is not the candidate in the riding.
After this story was first published, the federal Liberals' BC campaign manager confirmed Beach's status.
"Chris Beach submitted a nomination package for Cariboo-Prince George," Haley Hodgson wrote in a message via LinkedIn. "He is currently in the greenlight process and has not been confirmed as a candidate."
Beach said that as far as he knows, there's no one else running for the Cariboo-Prince George nomination, though he has not been in contact with the Ottawa campaign office.
“I think it’s a miscommunication,” Beach said. “I’ve done all my papers. They’re just dotting the I’s. I think it’s just a bureaucratic kind of mix-up.”
The Citizen has asked Beach to provide documentation to clarify his status as a candidate. This story will be updated should he do so.
"The Liberal Party of Canada has not yet confirmed any candidate for Cariboo-Prince George," Hodgson wrote. "Once a candidate is confirmed, a nomination notice will be posted to www.liberal.ca/nominations-notices."
The nomination deadline for candidates is 2 p.m. on April 7 — three weeks before election day on April 28. Candidates have until 5 p.m. on that same day to withdraw from the ballot.
During his introductory speech, the CNC political science instructor described himself to the crowd of three dozen or so visitors as a centrist who had been a member of the Liberals since the 80s, but felt the party had left people like him behind under the leadership of Justin Trudeau.
“But I came back when Mark Carney became leaders because it has become so very obvious that he is the right leader at the right time.”
He praised Carney’s decision to stop enforcement of the carbon tax and the carbon backstop, to seek closer ties with the European Union amidst the ongoing U.S.-Canada trade dispute, pursue the elimination of interprovincial trade barriers, improve Arctic security and fast-track infrastructure projects.
He told the crowd “thousands of people have signed up here in this riding to support Mark Carney.”
According to the Liberals’ own leadership results, just 489 people in the two Prince George ridings voted in the leadership election in which Carney prevailed.
Asked about the figure he offered, Beach clarified that he had been told by the party that “well over a thousand” people signed to support Mark Carney during the leadership campaign.
With the threat being posed to Canada by U.S. President Donald Trump, Beach said “there was no way I was going to sit this one out.”
Since Cariboo-Prince George was created from the former ridings of Prince George-Bulkley Valley and Cariboo-Chilcotin in 2004, it has only ever elected members of the Conservative Party of Canada.
“But far too long, this riding has been left out in the cold, sending opposition MPs to Ottawa that have no say when our region’s concerns are overlooked,” Beach said. “We’ve seen that time and time again. It’s time to choose a new path, one that gets Cariboo-Prince George a seat at the table in government with a voice in caucus right alongside the prime minister, shaping policies that affect our families, our communities and our future here in the north.”
He added the caveat that the federal government needs to be smarter, leaner and more responsive.
Beach also took a shot at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, arguing that Canada needs a government that believes in science, knows vaccines save people’s lives and that reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is the only way forward.
