Some analysts say the B.C. Conservatives are at risk of collapse as MLAs leave and staff are fired
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The B.C. Conservatives are potentially in the middle of an internal collapse, say some observers, as the caucus sheds MLAs by the day, staff resign or are fired, and new leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay faces a possible scandal over allegations she offered MLAs financial compensation to resign and allow her to run in a byelection.
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On Tuesday, Prince George-Valemount MLA Rosalyn Bird became the latest MLA to leave the Conservative caucus, citing infighting and a change in the party’s values.
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“Division, not only amongst parties, but the division amongst various groups around the province, has been very prevalent in the last year and a half at the B.C. legislature, and I don’t think it’s helpful to the greater good of the province,” Bird said.
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Sunrise
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She said it doesn’t make sense for a party to impose a purity test on it voters or MLAs, indicating she believes the Conservatives under Findlay have taken this route
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“As a new party, if you’re wanting the electorate to choose you because your policies, your ideas are what they align with.”
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She said she did not tell Findlay of her resignation from caucus before issuing her statement, but has since sent her an email thanking her for the opportunity to be in her shadow cabinet and that she respected the membership’s decision to choose its own leader.
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But she said she told Findlay that she didn’t think “the general population was aligned with a far right party any more than they were aligned with a far left party.”
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The B.C. Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment on Bird’s exit.
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It has been less than three months since party members elected Findlay, a lawyer and longtime Conservative MP, as John Rustad’s successor.
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In that time, she has lost three MLAs, with Ian Paton of Delta South and Peter Milobar of Kamloops Centre planning to form a new centre-right alternative to Findlay’s Conservatives.
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She has also been caught disparaging Richmond Centre MLA Teresa Wat in a leadership group chat.
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Along with Paton and West Vancouver-Capilano MLA Lynne Block, Bird was one of three MLAs to publicly confirm they had been asked by Findlay to resign so she could run in a byelection.
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Paton said he had been offered an agricultural adviser role by Findlay’s chief of staff, Chris Delaney, that would pay him the same amount he currently makes as an MLA, $122,043. Canada’s Criminal Code’s bans elected officials resigning in exchange for a financial reward.
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Findlay denied Paton’s allegations.
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Reann Gasper, until recently the MLA for Abbotsford-Mission, was named Findlay’s deputy chief of staff after stepping down Saturday to give her party leader a seat to run in.
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Speaking to Postmedia, Bird said Paton’s allegations contributed to her decision to leave the caucus.
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“Those are some very fairly serious allegations that have been made,” said Bird. “Whether they’re true or not true is not for me to determine. And so, I guess based on my personal principles and values, I just I chose to make the decision to make.”
