B.C. Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned Sunday, marking an end to her tumultuous tenure.
The head of the Opposition announced the move in a statement posted to social media.
“This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one for our movement and our province,” she wrote.
Since assuming the leadership role on May 30, the B.C. Conservative caucus has been beset by resignations and ousters as well as rapid turnover among senior staff, and a bombshell revelation that the party had hired a private investigator to look into Findlay’s critics.
Findlay had been defiant in the face of the exodus, repeatedly describing the chaos in the party as growing pains.
“I had hoped to spend these first months travelling our province, listening to British Columbians, earning their trust, and making the case for what a strong, united Conservative movement could accomplish,” Findlay wrote Sunday.
“Instead, from the outset, too much of our time and attention has been consumed by internal conflict.”
“There comes a moment when leadership requires you to consider not simply whether you can continue a fight, but whether continuing that fight serves the people and the cause you entered public life to serve,” Findlay’s statement said.
“I have reached that moment.”
Findlay did not have a seat in the legislature when she won the leadership race by a narrow margin.
Her campaign to win a seat in an upcoming byelection Abbotsford-Mission is not being suspended, she noted in her statement.
“I remain a Conservative. I remain committed to British Columbia, my home,” she wrote.
Eby Expected to Call an Election
With the Opposition in disarray, speculation has been intensifying that Premier David Eby is set to call a snap election as early as Tuesday, which would send voters to the polls on Oct 24.
The caucus of British Columbia’s governing NDP has met to discuss a potential early election after Findaly’s resignation Findlay.
The Conservative board of directors appointed MLA Lorne Doerkson as interim leader hours later.
But the Conservative constitution prohibits an interim head from seeking the party’s leadership in a subsequent ballot, so if an election is called soon, the official Opposition candidate for premier would not immediately be clear.
NDP MLAs met last night to discuss Findlay’s departure, according to an email from party staff that was inadvertently sent to all legislators on Sunday, instead of just those on the government benches.
“I’m sure you’ve seen by now, but KLF has resigned as leader of the BC Conservatives,” the email obtained by The Canadian Press says.
It goes on to say the meeting was to “to discuss and hear from Cheryl and her team,” an apparent reference to Cheryl Oates, Premier David Eby’s former chief of staff, who has been appointed to manage the NDP campaign for the next election, whenever it is held.
Eby said last week that he told his legislators they need to be “election ready.”
Doerkson was first elected in the riding of Cariboo—Chilcotin in 2020 as a member of the BC Liberal party, which rebranded as B.C. United, before crossing the floor to join the Conservatives and being reelected in 2024.
Rustad Invited Back to Caucus
Former British Columbia Conservative leader John Rustad says he has been invited to rejoin the party’s caucus, just days after he was expelled by Kerry-Lynne Findlay in the dying days of her own tenure as leader.
Doerkson has reached out to him by text message and asked him to return.
Rustad says there are “obviously lots of people” in B.C. who don’t know the Cariboo-Chilcotin legislator, but Doerkson is a “quality individual” and Rustad is happy to have him lead the party into an election if he wants.
Rustad says of speculation about the future of the Conservatives that people like former premiers Christy Clark and Gordon Campbell need to “let politics go,” and realize that “their time is over.”
Conservatives Lose Another MLA
The Conservatives lost another member of caucus Sunday, with the resignation of Linda Hepner.
The Surrey-Serpentine River MLA provided CTV News with the messages she sent to embattled leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay Sunday.
Hepner cited the ouster of three MLAs—including former leader John Rustad—as the trigger for her decision.
“To me, it is beyond the pale of common sense to remove experienced voices rather than find a way to listen to them,” her message to Findlay said, noting that Rustad “built this party from a single elected member.”
Rustad was removed from caucus along with Surrey-White Rock MLA and former interim leader Trevor Halford and Skeena MLA Claire Rattée late last week.
Hepner, in her resignation statement, explicitly criticized the party’s leadership saying she had “lost confidence” in Findlay’s willingness to “listen, to seek experienced advice, and to consider perspectives beyond (her) immediate circle.”
The chaos in the party—including the recent revelation that a private investigator had been hired to look into Findlay’s critics—had become a distraction from the work of holding office and representing her constituents, Hepner’s resignation statement said.
“My tolerance of the current upheaval has been exhausted,” she wrote.
The Conservatives won 44 seats to the B.C. NDP’s 47 in the last B.C. election, but ousters and defections have left the party with 24.
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Lisa Staecy The Canadian Press.