Under Findlay, the BC Conservatives Are Headed for the Rocks

The BC Conservatives have missed a huge opportunity. If they’d sold the rights to make a reality TV show about the party, everyone would now be cashing in.

Kerry-Lynne Findlay has been leader for just under three months. In that time, five MLAs have quit over her values, hiring decisions and desire to purge the party and caucus staff and replace them with allies. Often, questionable ones.

Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar was the first to leave on Aug. 14.

Then came this week. On Monday, Delta South MLA Ian Paton left, announcing plans to form a new party with Milobar. On Tuesday Prince George-Valemount MLA Rosalyn Bird denounced Findlay’s leadership and left.

And on Wednesday, a double header.

MLA Teresa Wat, who represents the Richmond-Bridgeport riding, said she “can no longer serve” under Findlay and would sit as an Independent.

And hours later Courtenay-Comox MLA Brennan Day quit the party to sit as an Independent Conservative saying he’s lost confidence in Findlay.

“What she’s done to the Conservative Party in a short time is reckless and it is actually political malpractice what she's doing here,” he said.

“Who Kerry-Lynne Findlay has decided to surround herself are absolutely an affront to my moral centre,” Day said.

Day’s concerns were showcased earlier Wednesday.

CKNW host Jas Johal shared audio purporting to reveal Conservative staff talking about raising money in order to enrich themselves.

“I don’t walk away from money,” one says.

The audio also seemed to reveal staff discussing the need to force out controversial chief of staff Chris Delaney.

The recording hasn’t been verified and the people involved haven’t been identified.

Hours later, Findlay announced that Apollo Chung, the party’s director of operations, would be fired.

Though her announcement was indicative of a penchant for secrecy.

“As of this morning I have directed my Chief of Staff to terminate the Director of Operations for the B.C. Conservative Caucus, effective immediately,” she posted. No reasons, no names.

Findlay’s hiring decisions have been strange.

Chung is a former aide to NDP cabinet minister Brenda Bailey and was recently executive director of the separatist Alberta Republican Party. Caucus communications director Cosmin Dzsurdzsa is a former writer for right-wing Juno News, who has argued the Conservatives should shut out “establishment media… beyond what’s absolutely necessary (because dealing with these clowns is still unfortunately part of the job, for now).”

And Findlay faces her own ethics challenge. Paton, one of the departing MLAs, said he was offered “a staff role for two years as agriculture advisor for the party” at his $122,000 MLA salary if he’d resign so Findlay could run in his riding. He said no. Offering an inducement in return for a politician’s resignation is a criminal offence.

Another one of the defectors, Rosalyn Bird, said when she refused to resign to give Findlay a chance to run in her riding, the leader threw a “tantrum.”

“She yelled at me, told me I was being selfish, told me this was about a bigger picture, then she hung up. The conversation was less than a minute.”

Last week Abbotsford-Mission MLA Reann Gasper said she would step down so Findlay could run in a byelection. Gasper was promptly hired as Findlay’s deputy chief of staff.

Findlay’s responses are compounding the problems

A rational person, or party, might think the loss of five MLAs, all with common concerns about ethics, hiring and the party’s direction, should induce some reflection.

Instead, Findlay called them “selfish” and said the party would quickly nominate candidates in their ridings to defeat them in the next election.

“If they’re leaving, that means they do not have a vision for prosperity and hope that we’re presenting for all British Columbians,” she said.

In a post to X, Kelowna Centre MLA Kristina Loewen went farther, calling them “Old BC Liberal MLAs who stayed on a ship until it sank and then jumped onto our life raft in order to cling to relevance.”

Which seems to be the current Conservative position. If you are not blindly loyal and able to pass the party purity tests, good riddance.

What now?

Expect more MLAs to quit.

Watch for the five current defectors to explore ways of working together in the legislature (Paton and Milobar’s plan to form a party would bring significant public funding and a bigger role. Others may join.)

Expect efforts to find a new centre-right vehicle, already underway, to accelerate.

And pay close attention to the next Elections BC report on party fundraising, which will likely be bad news for the Conservatives.

But don’t expect Findlay and her supporters to change course. If she was going to recognize that she was elected as leader by the narrowest of margins and needed to unite the party, that would have happened by now.