Can a Former BC Liberal Unseat Quesnel’s Controversial Mayor?

Former BC Liberal cabinet minister Coralee Oakes is not a standard progressive, but she might need their votes if she is going to unseat Quesnel’s controversial mayor.

A former Quesnel councillor who served for a decade in the legislature, Oakes is aiming to defeat incumbent Ron Paull.

In 2024, Paull’s wife, Pat Morton, distributed the book Grave Error, which calls into question the harms caused by residential schools, to clients at her son’s tax office. Morton’s actions sparked calls for Paull’s resignation, led to pitched council battles and resulted in two lawsuits.

Although two years have passed, the controversy has “left a sour taste in a lot of people’s mouths,” Paull’s predecessor and former Quesnel MLA Bob Simpson told The Tyee.

Simpson, who spent eight years as mayor and has waged election battles against both Oakes and Paull, characterized both candidates as ideologically conservative. But he said Oakes, in addition to her experience in Victoria, might appeal to voters seeking a break from the turmoil surrounding Paull.

“I think there’s a desire in the community for somebody different,” he said. The race features a third candidate, Brian Waters, who previously ran in 2022 and received just 50 votes.

The controversy prompted local First Nations to cease work with the City of Quesnel and call for Paull’s resignation. Although Paull claimed he had not read the book, two councillors said he had tried to share it with other government officials. Paull fiercely disputed that allegation. Quesnel council voted unanimously to censure Paull and remove him from committees.

Paull proceeded to sue the city, alleging the process by which he was censured was unfair because insufficient notice was provided about the reasons for the disciplinary action. A judge sided with Paull last March, overturning the censure and agreeing that the motion that led to it was confusing. Although Paull recently described the court victory as “winning redemption,” the ruling did not make a finding regarding whether Paull shared the book or if doing so was appropriate.

Meanwhile, Paull’s wife, Pat Morton, filed her own lawsuits, with less success. Morton sued the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs after it released a statement saying she had shared the book “in blatant disregard for the impact this would have on residential school survivors and their families.”

A B.C. Supreme Court justice found that the statement was fair comment and dismissed the suit under B.C.’s anti-SLAPP legislation, which seeks to deter lawsuits aimed at suppressing freedom of expression on public interest matters.

Morton also sued Quesnel Coun. Laurey-Anne Roodenburg about statements she made. Roodenburg has also filed an anti-SLAPP motion to have that suit dismissed. A decision in that case has not yet been released.

Paull has said this election will give voters their chance to give their verdict on his actions. He recently told the Quesnel Cariboo Observer that he sees his quest for re-election as a chance to win the public’s endorsement after the controversy.

“I’m both humbled and motivated by the quiet encouragement of so many electors whom I’ve heard from that say I should give it ‘one more go’ to enable their ballot box response to council’s unanimous censure and sanctions against me in the wake of my dear wife, Pat, simply purchasing and sharing the book titled Grave Error,” he said.

Oakes has not focused on that history in her public-facing election materials, instead stressing her business and governmental experience and the need to keep city costs low, boost the local economy and recruit more RCMP officers. She did recently share photos from her attendance at local Truth and Reconciliation Day events and post on Facebook about the need to foster reconciliation with local First Nations.

Paull did not share any marker of Truth and Reconciliation Day on his public-facing sites.

At a community forum on Sept. 29, the candidates were asked how they would “contribute to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, UNDRIP and 33 recommendations for the Highway of Tears.”

The pair delivered starkly different responses.

Oakes cited a day during her time at the legislature when she and her team spent 20 minutes reading out the names of women who went missing on the Highway of Tears and in Quesnel.

“The fact that took 20 minutes, just reading names, is abhorrent,” she said. “We continue to see a high level of violence in our communities.”

“All of those names are people we knew, they’re people we grew up with,” she said.

Oakes also talked about friends who had attended residential schools and shared with her the impacts.

“We need to listen and we need to find that path forward, and we need to make sure we’re defending them,” she said. Oakes then called the appearance of masked men in Kamloops “deplorable.”

Paull, for his part, said he would be watching the outcome of the provincial election, while noting that he was a member of the Conservative Party of BC.

“It’s a question that really goes to a person’s beliefs and opinions,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult, particularly in view of the fact we may be on the verge of a change in government.”

Paull said the party may be looking to repeal or seriously amend the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. He didn’t address what he would do specifically to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, nor the recommendations regarding the Highway of Tears.

“I really don’t have a comment,” he said. “Obviously it’s a very opportune question on the eve of National Reconciliation Day, but I really don’t have anything further to say on that at the moment.”

A tangled history

Over the last two decades, Oakes’ and Paull’s political lives have overlapped with each other, and with Simpson, a maverick local politician who dominated the area’s political scene for decades.

The two mayoral candidates jointly served on council together for six years until 2011, when Paull ran unsuccessfully for mayor, losing to incumbent Mary Sjostrom, while Oakes decided against seeking re-election.

Two years later, in 2013’s provincial election, Oakes ran for the BC Liberals. She narrowly defeated Simpson, who had served two terms as an NDP MLA but who ran as an Independent after being ejected from the party caucus for criticizing then-leader Carole James. The NDP hasn’t won a seat in the region since.

Simpson, having lost as an Independent, cast his eye at the Quesnel mayor’s chair. Running in 2014, he easily defeated the city’s incumbent mayor, receiving more than 70 per cent of the vote. Paull, meanwhile, returned to Quesnel council that year. He served two terms, before he ran against Simpson in 2022 and won.

Oakes, meanwhile, easily won re-election as MLA in 2017 and 2020. But since BC United Leader Kevin Falcon suspended campaigning in 2024, she has found herself following in Simpson’s footsteps. Oakes ran as an Independent in the 2024 provincial election and lost. Now she, again like Simpson, is aiming to dethrone an incumbent mayor and preside over Quesnel council.

Simpson, now a consultant, says he is “very glad” to be done with politics. He says Quesnel’s voters have some of the same central concerns as many British Columbians. In short, they want politicians to tackle social challenges, visible homelessness and economic anxieties. With Quesnel’s pulp mill temporarily closing in September, there are worries the work stoppage could be permanent.

Simpson, who spent much of his energy as mayor prioritizing attempts to move the local economy beyond the forestry sector, says Quesnel voters will be looking to elect a mayor who can effectively marshal resources and support to mitigate the impacts of a potential mill closure.

A perennial concern is the effort to detour Highway 97 truck traffic away from Quesnel’s core. For years, Quesnel’s politicians have been asking the province to fund a bypass route.

“Since the 1960s, I don’t think there’s been a provincial, federal or municipal election that hasn’t raised the interconnector as a key point,” Simpson said.

The province started design work on the project more than seven years ago but has yet to provide funding to actually build the bypass. The province halted planning work following the 2021 atmospheric river, Simpson said. Paull has made advocacy of the route a key priority for a second term.

Simpson, though, believes the controversy over the distribution of the residential school book has compromised Paull’s ability to partner with the province. He pointed to the lack of a press conference when the province announced a 220-bed seniors care facility in Quesnel shortly after the book controversy.

“They didn’t even send a minister up; they just issued a press release,” he said. “He became untouchable.”

Ultimately, however, it’s up to Quesnel’s voters to decide who their next mayor will be.

Simpson said Paull has his backers in the community, though he doesn’t think they are a majority. He also wonders whether Oakes can elicit votes from progressives, who may have the strongest opinions about Paull’s controversies and positions on Indigenous issues.

“These voters already have a track record with Coralee as a minister and as an opposition member in that conservative ideology, so do they feel comfortable enough voting for her because she’s different than Ron on that one particular issue, or appears to be?”

Turnout might be key, he suggested, especially given the proximity to the provincial vote.

“Turnout in municipal elections are hit-and-miss at best,” he said. “With the provincial election a few days afterwards, do people have the energy to show up for the municipal one?”