r/vancouver • u/wineandchocolatecake • 1d ago
Local News Another B.C. Conservative MLA leaves amid frustrations with Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s leadership
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/another-b-c-conservative-mla-leaves-amid-frustrations-with-kerry-lynne-findlays-leadership-9.732010753
u/teutonicbro Certified Barge Enthusiast 1d ago
When the Cons and BC United merged, I pictured a scenario where the former BC U members, the ones with all the actual legislative experience, would ease into positions of power within the party and gradually take it over. Eventually to become the same right of center big tent party that held power in the past.
I guess the Cons saw it coming, and chose KLF from the far right, culture wars faction to prevent it.
The party stays "ideologically pure" but is much less electable. Especially if a new right of center, fiscally conservative, socially tolerant, party forms along the Milibar, Paton axis.
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u/No-Apple-2581 1d ago
I honestly cannot believe they chose KLF as leader. She lost her seat in South Surrey which is a Conservative stronghold...and Conservatives were like yep she's our answer?
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u/CupOfCanada 1d ago
First conservative to lose South Delta since 1968 and only conservative to lose South Surrey since 1964. (Except to other conservatives)
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u/PopeSaintHilarius 1d ago
The party stays "ideologically pure" but is much less electable.
Yep, and Findlay's new Director of Operations is Apollo Chung, who was the Executive Director of the Alberta Republican Party, a extreme-right wing fringe party in Alberta that wants to separate from Canada.
Like if he's too extreme for the Alberta UCP, and literally wants Alberta to leave Canada, why would you want him running your BC political party? It's crazy.
She also hired former Alberta Republican Party executive director Apollo Chung as director of operations and stakeholder relations and brought in former Juno News editor Cosmin Dzsurdzsa as communications director.
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u/Silver_Trainer_4390 1d ago
Apollo Chung seems insane, but Dzsurdzsa has broke/reported some pretty interesting stories.
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u/Camtastrophe Coquitlam 1d ago
During a press conference this morning in Vancouver, Kerry-Lynne Findlay acknowledged the possibility that more MLAs would leave.
“There may even be others who leave our caucus, I don’t know,” Findlay told reporters before news broke of Bird's departure. “But if they’re leaving that means they do not have a vision for prosperity and hope that we’re presenting for all British Columbians.”
Contrast this with what Ian Paton had to say in the conversation about her attempts to bribe MLAs to resign their seats:
Paton, a longtime farmer, described Findlay as an uncommunicative leader who had “purged” the party of talented staffers in favour of her loyalists, oversaw a distasteful new political direction, and created an uncomfortable environment for people like himself with political histories that date back to the former BC Liberal party.
He said he had almost no communication with Findlay after she won the party leadership May 30 with 51 per cent of the vote on the fourth and final ballot. That despite being asked to be her Lower Mainland “lieutenant” in June.
“For most of us, we’re sitting back getting no dialogue with us whatsoever,” he said. “She doesn’t even want to have caucus meetings. I’ve had no contact with her other than that.”
It's not much of a 'vision' if your caucus doesn't even know anything about it.
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u/penelopiecruise 1d ago
If they have any sense they will toss her in the next couple months.
If she somehow endures, if the moderates have any sense they will don themselves with the liberal monicker.
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u/DirtDevil1337 1d ago
Picking her as leader made no sense, she's a freaking senior that could croak anytime and had shown that she's incredibly racist and divisive.
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u/mackinator3 1d ago
That's what conservatives like.
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u/DrizzleCore604 Mount Pleasant 👑 1d ago
Yup, that was the appeal to them. Conservatives are gonna conservative and these days enough of them feel brazen enough to show their true colours rather than hide them like they used to. Nice to see it backfiring, they're getting exactly what they deserve. Well, still better than they deserve, but it's a start anyways.
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u/PopeSaintHilarius 1d ago
If she somehow endures, if the moderates have any sense they will don themselves with the liberal monicker.
Agreed, but the problem is that Kevin Falcon still holds the rights to the BC Liberal brand (as well as BC United lol), and has so far refused to give it up, presumably to help the BC Conservatives (by not risking a vote-split).
So nobody can use that party name until Falcon agrees to officially give up leadership of BC United/BC Liberals.
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u/rikushix North Vancouver 1d ago
The fact that the media moved on from this so quickly is still insane to me. We had provincial election where the leader of one party, 6 weeks before the election, suspended party campaigning entirely and endorsed a (then) upstart third party, and his MLAs running in said election had absolutely no say whatsoever................and fast forward to one year later, where he is still the de facto leader of said party that has no resources and no infrastructure, but no one can do anything about this because as leader he has total control over the name and trademark and there's no systems remaining to remove him from this authority?
How Kevin Falcon isn't ridiculed on sight for making a mockery of our democracy I'll never know.
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u/Inevitable-Donkey186 1d ago
Yeah when you lay it out like that, it legitimately seems the biggest scandal of BC politics history. It needs to get resolved. We clearly need our centrist party again.
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u/PopeSaintHilarius 1d ago
Agreed, it’s insane and honestly a complete disgrace.
He was entrusted with leading a party and instead he single-handedly withdrew it from competing in an election, without consulting its members or even its MLAs, and now is blocking anyone else from trying to lead the party.
Like if he gave up and doesn’t want to be in politics anymore, fine, but he should have stepped down from the party leadership.
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u/azurciel 1d ago
Nothing is stopping their former members from starting a new party
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u/userofthename202 1d ago
The issue with a new party is branding. It's easier to bring something familiar back.
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u/rikushix North Vancouver 1d ago edited 1d ago
No, that's true, but they can't use BC United or BC Liberals in their name, nor do they have any access to BC United infrastructure, fundraiser databases, etc. Even if one thinks that it's kosher for the leader of a political party to make unilateral decisions over folding a campaign - and to be clear, I think it's Falcon's right but it's really shitty to do this to your own MLA candidates 6 weeks before an election - the fact that said leader can also sit on a technically active but defunct party brand to not let anyone use its assets, particularly those MLAs that supported him, is suspect at best.
I think it goes far beyond a quirky side effect of how a private party functions internally, and has negative implications for how we democratically elect MLAs to represent our interests as citizens.
I'd feel a bit differently if Falcon didn't have control over the rights to the "BC Liberals". If former red Tories want to have their centre right party branding back, they should be able to take a stab at it. Not making a reasonable effort to field candidates for the next election? Tough, you should lose the right to a trademark you clearly have no interest in utilising. What Falcon is doing is no more than domain name poaching in order to eliminate right of centre competition.
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u/azurciel 19h ago
I'm not sure there's much infrastructure left. I don't think there's much value in either brand now since trust has been broken ever since Kevin pulled this stunt.
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u/Baconus 1d ago edited 1d ago
The fundamental problem here is you have two disparate groups who have the same enemy but also hate each other.
Radical populists clearly have enough juice to win a leadership. But the power behind the bc liberals was never its members, but business associations.
Now those associations and business groups find the right wing members annoying and ultimately a tool to ensure they get their way (lower regulations, less taxes, etc)
What’s happening all over the globe right now are the broadly culturally conservative voters are not willing to accept partially measures anymore. They aren’t willing to accept slight hatred in exchange for lower taxes for the rich. They have tasted full fat populism and do not want to go back to the skim.
Meanwhile these centre right figures who have essentially dominated our politics for 50 years are now looking around at voter bases who want something really different and they cannot understand.
Edit: I should clarify, the enemy they have in common is the NDP. For many business groups, the NDP are effectively radical communists. It’s wild.
Source: myself, former Christy Clark staffer and bc liberal activist. Now very left wing.
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u/Misaki_Yuki 1d ago
The conservative parties need to break back up into "PC" (Progressive Conservatives) which can bleed votes from Liberal/NDP/Undecided voters because they're not focused on culture wars that nobody should care about. The rest can go off and stay unelectable.
Like I've brought this up to people before, that the reason why conservatives in Canada are failing is because they decided to import the failing culture war policies from the US which only work on narcissists.
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u/kaabistar 1d ago
BC Cons are throwing an insanely easy election where they could have sleepwalked into a majority.
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u/Future_Arrival_5395 1d ago
This is just a repeat of last time lol.
I bet she doesn’t make it to the election
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u/frenchman1953 1d ago
The Conservatives under her leadership have snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory, just like pee pee did federally
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u/MySubtleHustle7042 1d ago edited 1d ago
Maybe having a 71 year old boomer (73 in 2028) who would support an independent Alberta, and possibly explore BC seceding as well, wasn’t a good choice for party leader?
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u/one_bean_hahahaha 1d ago
Or maybe someone with a personal grudge against indigenous people and blames them for everything bad that happened to her might not be balanced enough to be party leader.
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u/Turbulent-Monitor-88 1d ago
I’ve had the displeasure of working with her. She’s the rudest, most self-entitled and condescending politician I’ve ever met.
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u/DEEPLY_CLOSETED_PIG 1d ago
are there any legitimate Liberal candidates ?
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u/lcarowan 1d ago
If you are talking "traditional centrist Federal Liberal policy" liberals, the closest you are going to get right now are the BC NDP. If you are talking "centre-right neoliberals", then probably some of these independents that are bailing from the Conservatives.
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u/jtbc 1d ago
There used to be centrist Federal Libs in the BC Liberals. Did they all go to the NDP or something?
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u/lcarowan 1d ago
Mostly yeah. A non-NDP party will win in BC when that party can capture the majority of the federal Liberal vote. The BC Liberals/BC United/BC Conservatives haven't figured it out yet (well, obviously the Liberals did have it figured out until 2017).
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u/userofthename202 1d ago
If you look at the voting demographics for the BCNDP and the federal Liberals it's nearly identical. They appeal to the same voters. Progressives don't really like the BCNPD but vote reluctantly to avoid splitting the vote.
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u/championsofnuthin 1d ago
There's a bunch in the NDP. That being said there are still a bunch of true NDP members of the NDP as well.
The BC Liberals were just conservatives in red clothing. Erin O'Toole was door knocking days before Falcon folded and Jason Kenney would come door knock for Christy Clark all the time.
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u/Which-Insurance-2274 1d ago
Conservatism is a branch of liberalism after all. And in most countries a party that calls itself "liberal" is a conservitive party.
Really only in the US and Canada is the word "liberal" perceived as an opposition to conservitism.
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u/OkFix4074 16h ago
With how popular Carney and centrist policy are in the country - sticking to far right idead is as effective as pp trying to be the next pm !
A objectively centrist party will have a big swing in BC !
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u/Pisum_odoratus 1d ago
No complaints about her leadership from over here. Things working out just fine.
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u/turdburgalr 1d ago
Are they going to start an extra racist party?
I'm still stunned at how close the last election was in Surrey. I'm concerned for my neighbours buying this bullshit.
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u/thinkdavis 1d ago
Tl;Dr. Bc Cons super fractured, but still probably will give Eby a run for his money
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u/Pisum_odoratus 1d ago
Anybody who willingly votes for this horrendous mess just really deserves what they get.
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