New B.C. Tory Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay said Monday that she looks forward to working with past B.C. Liberals, including Peter Milobar, the MLA with whom she exchanged harsh words during the leadership race.
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The B.C. Conservatives’ new leader appears poised to take the party in a more right-wing, populist direction, political experts say, and away from the more centrist, big-tent approach of the B.C. Liberals, the party that for many years was the province’s main right-of-centre force.
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The victory of Kerry-Lynne Findlay, who B.C. Tory members chose over the weekend as their new leader, is seen as a break from the B.C. Grits and B.C. United, the parties associated with defeated leadership candidates Caroline Elliott, Iain Black and Peter Milobar.
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On Monday, Findlay said she is confident that her messaging will appeal to past supporters of the B.C. Liberals, and other parties, as she aims to defeat the B.C. NDP and form B.C.’s first Conservative government in a century.
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“My view of the future is that anyone who believes in building opportunity and prosperity in B.C. will like our messaging and join in,” said Findlay, a former longtime federal Tory member of Parliament. “It really doesn’t matter where people have seen themselves before, they could be old-time Socreds, or B.C. Liberals, or B.C. United, or voted Conservative, or even NDP. Do they want to see progress in terms of our economic situation?”
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Findlay said that Milobar, a former B.C. Liberal MLA, has already told her that he looks forward to working with her as the new party leader, and she told him the same. During the leadership race, Milobar and Findlay traded harsh words when Findlay suggested the MLA could find himself in a conflict of interest on First Nations issues because his wife and children are Indigenous. Her statement was widely condemned at the time, including by some federal Conservative MPs with whom Findlay worked in Ottawa.
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But Findlay said Monday: “It’s about the future, it’s not about the past … It’s about getting on with a future vision. I’m open to talking to anyone who sees that as a future vision they can get behind.”
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Simon Fraser University political scientist Sanjay Jeram thinks it’s unlikely that Findlay, as the leader of the Opposition, will fundamentally change from the populist style that won her the role.
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If Findlay tries to “reshape her image” too much, in the interest of appealing to more middle-of-the-road voters, it could hurt her and the party, Jeram said, considering the party’s recent internal tumult.
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And, he predicted, the Tories could still find success in the next provincial election even without courting those more centrist voters, by riding a wave of public dissatisfaction with the B.C. NDP and Premier David Eby.
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By the time of the next general B.C. election, scheduled for 2028, the B.C. NDP will have been in power for more than a decade. It’s common for voter dissatisfaction to increase the longer a party is in office, Jeram said, and recent polls haven’t been favourable for Eby and his party.
