DAWSON CREEK, B.C. - As former South Peace MLA, Mike Bernier wraps up a province-wide membership drive for CentreBC, the party’s leader is facing a new political challenge from two former colleagues who have announced plans to launch a new centrist political party in British Columbia.
The development came during Bernier’s nine-day “Pick-Up Tour,” an effort aimed at growing CentreBC’s profile, raising money and attracting voters dissatisfied with both the governing NDP and the B.C. Conservatives.
While Bernier has spent the past week promoting CentreBC as a home for moderate voters, former Conservative MLAs Peter Milobar and Ian Paton have revealed plans to register a new political party before the legislature returns this fall.
The pair have both left the Conservative caucus within the last week, citing concerns about the direction of the party under new leader Kerry-Lynne Findaly.
New party planned
They told reporters this week they hope to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with the NDP but no longer identify with the Conservatives.
Their move creates a potentially crowded landscape on the centre-right of B.C. politics, where CentreBC has been attempting to establish itself since it was formed last year.
CentreBC, now led by Bernier, was recently measured at five per cent support province-wide in a Research Co. poll.
Asked whether he was surprised by the decision to launch another centrist party and whether he would consider abandoning CentreBC to join forces with Milobar and Paton, Bernier rejected the idea.
“We are a fully established party at CentreBC growing and we have momentum right across the province, forming that big tent party that people are asking for and we’re going to continue doing that work,” Bernier said.
He added that the party intends to continue building support as an alternative to both major political parties.
“Forging ahead. There is a plan to get rid of the NDP. We are the established party working to have a strong alternative in the next election,” Bernier said.
The comments come just days after Bernier set off from Dawson Creek in a pickup truck alongside his wife, Valerie on a tour that included town halls and meetings across the province.
Formed in 2025 under Karin Kirkpatrick, a BC United MLA who lost her Metro Vancouver seat to the Conservatives in 2024, the party — which does not have a representative in the legislature — is now led by former BC Liberal cabinet minister Bernier.
“B.C. needs a socially progressive, fiscally responsible choice,” Bernier said in a statement issued after the party’s executive council appointed him leader in July.
Won’t join Bernier and CentreBC
But Milobar said MLAs who have sat as Independents and others, including Conservative caucus members who’d reached out to him over the last week, weren’t interested in joining CentreBC.
“People, for whatever reasons, are not choosing to go to that vehicle,” he said Monday.
Milobar said it had become clear “they would prefer something new be created and try to as best as possible create that new energy for the public to get behind.”
Political observers have questioned why Milobar and Paton are choosing to create a new party rather than joining CentreBC.
Hamish Telford, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, said Milobar and Paton’s decision to form a new party instead of joining CentreBC was a mystery.
But he said the party would have an advantage over CentreBC because, with two sitting MLAs, it can obtain official status.
“They’ll be in the hallways, scrumming with reporters and getting their message out. And I rather suspect that others will join them,” he said in an interview.
Stewart Prest, a politics lecturer at the University of B.C., said the recent shifts have built up to an “identity-defining moment” for the Conservatives.
He said the plan for a new party felt like the outcome of a course set by Findlay, whose “bold” vision could backfire if voters see her party as too radical.
It would be a “difficult road” for Milobar and Paton ahead of the next election, Prest said.
“But they have some time now to build out a new strategy and a new identity,” he said, adding he wouldn’t be surprised to see them collaborate with the existing CentreBC party.
Milobar acknowledged concerns that multiple centre-right parties could split the vote and benefit the governing NDP.
For Bernier, the emergence of another centrist option does not appear to be changing his plans.
As he heads back to Dawson Creek following his Pick-Up Tour, the former Peace River South MLA says CentreBC will continue its efforts to become what he describes as the “strong alternative” to the NDP in the next provincial election.
With Files from The Canadian Press