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The B.C. Conservative caucus put up a largely united front Sunday, less than 24 hours after Kerry-Lynne Findlay was elected their new leader.
It comes amid concerns from other politicians and political analysts that Findlay’s populist brand of right-leaning politics might alienate the centrist wing of the party.
After a meeting in downtown Vancouver, Findlay was asked about unifying the caucus, in the wake of a bruising three-month leadership campaign filled with personal attacks and splits along ideological lines. Some of the MLAs behind her supported other candidates, including Peter Milobar.
“Well, are you staying?” she asked.
The MLAs behind her shouted “Yeah!” and clapped.
Findlay, a lawyer and former Conservative MP, was criticized — including by some Conservative MPs, some of whom served alongside Findlay in Stephen Harper’s cabinet — for questioning whether Milobar was in a conflict of interest on reconciliation issues because his wife is Indigenous.
Findlay says she and Milobar have been talking.
Initially thought to be a front runner, Milobar was the first candidate to drop off on the first ballot Saturday evening.
Milobar, though, insists he’s “not going anywhere” and that the caucus can coalesce around Findlay.
Kerry-Lynne Findlay is the new leader of the B.C. Conservative Party. She won on the fourth ballot with 51 per cent of the vote. Findlay takes over from interim leader Trevor Halford who has been in place since December when John Rustad resigned.
A major decision facing Findlay will be whether to invite back any of the six MLAs who were kicked out or left caucus.
Findlay says she won’t make any unilateral decisions and will consult with caucus. She took a subtle jab at another candidate, Yuri Fulmer, for making a non-compete deal with OneBC Leader Dallas Brodie to avoid splitting the right in a general election.
Sitting Independents Jordan Kealy, the MLA for Peace River North, and Tara Armstrong, who represents Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream, endorsed Findlay as leader.
Armstrong and Kealy left the B.C. Conservative caucus in March 2025, in solidarity with Dallas Brodie. Rustad removed Brodie from the ranks after he says she mocked residential school survivors during a podcast interview.
Armstrong has pushed for the abolishment of the human rights code and put forward a private members bill that would have given parents the right to sue doctors up to 25 years after they provided care for transgender children.
She was slammed by the NDP for using “Nazi rhetoric” when she used the the term “blood and soil” in her attack on a First Nations treaty. It’s a phrase frequently used by German fascists before and during the Second World War.
Neither Kealy or Armstrong could be reached for comment Sunday. Both congratulated Findlay on social media.
Armstrong wrote that Findlay “took a firm, unashamed stand against childhood medical transition and gender ideology in schools.”
Friday marked the first time all five remaining B.C. Conservative Party leadership candidates shared a stage. As the CBC’s Janella Hamilton reports, the debate featured several feisty exchanges between the candidates.
Findlay promised during the campaign that she would end sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) programs in B.C. schools. The program was was established in schools in 2016 by the then-ruling B.C. Liberals, as part of anti-bullying policies, but has become a flashpoint for Conservative politicians who have slammed the teaching of “gender ideology” in schools.
Asked if her policy position should worry trans people, Findlay said: “No one should be afraid. I want to protect children. I want to help children.”
During her victory speech Saturday night, Findlay promised she will stand up for “free people making free choices and free speech in a free enterprise market economy. Where hard work is rewarded, and we are not crushed by socialist overreach that wants to dictate literally what we think, what we believe, what we can say and who we associate with.”
Elenore Sturko, who was kicked out of caucus in September after Rustad accused her of undermining his leadership, says Findlay ran a campaign that essentially asked for a “purity test” of true conservatives, excluding former B.C. Liberals.
“I don’t think I see this as a big tent party any longer,” said the Independent MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale.
Surrey MLA Elenore Sturko has been kicked out of the B.C. Conservative caucus, following the results of John Rustad’s leadership review, in which he maintained support from a majority of those who cast votes. As CBC’s Katie Derosa reports, Sturko says she did not see her removal coming.
Sturko says British Columbians now have a choice between two extremes.
“You couldn’t get too further polar opposites in terms of a left-wing radical in David Eby and I’m going to say someone who is a little bit radical on the right wing. Not a little bit, actually, quite a bit radical,” Sturko said.
Sturko says she’s been copied on several emails from B.C. Conservatives cancelling their membership. CBC News could not reach anyone from the B.C. Conservative party to ask if anyone has cancelled their party membership.
The party membership swelled to 40,000 during the leadership campaign, up from about 7,000 under Rustad. However, only 26,000 of those new members had their identities verified through an online mechanism to prevent fraud.
Former MLA Karin Kirkpatrick started a party called Centre B.C. following the collapse of her former party, the B.C. Liberals, renamed B.C. United under Kevin Falcon.
Kirkpatrick says “electing Kerry-Lynne Findlay is very, very bad for the Conservative party and very good for a party like Centre B.C.”
She predicts many British Columbians will be looking for a middle-of-the-road party come the next general election.
Findlay was asked if she can win the broad support of British Columbians.
She quoted former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher: “First you win the argument, then you win the vote.”
“We’re talking about prosperity, we’re talking about hope, bringing affordability back to British Columbia. That is a message that will resonate with all British Columbians.”
