Kerry-Lynne Findlay is surely done as leader of British Columbia’s Conservative Party.
asserted
Findlay → do → Party
Anyone willing to bet Findlay will remain at the party’s helm longer than the typical leafy green can prevail in your fridge clearly isn’t paying attention to current events.
asserted
green → bet → events
On Wednesday afternoon two MLAs quit Findlay’s Conservative caucus, bringing the total to a whopping five in twelve days.
asserted
MLAs → quit → days
There isn’t a fire inside B.C.’s Conservative party; there’s an inferno, and Kerry-Lynne Findlay is the one who lit the match to start it.
Having won the B.C. Conservative leadership by a hair’s width over activist and commentator Caroline Elliott at the end of May, Findlay has set about purifying the Conservative party back to its roots and away from the broader centre-right, free market coalition which has caused tension in the party since it merged with B.C. United (formerly the B.C. Liberals) ahead of the 2024 election.
uncertain
it → be → election
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Gone are the people who actually built the party to its current broader tent status.
asserted
who → go → status
Notable examples, apart from the MLAs fleeing the scene of the crime-in-progress, include Angelo Isidorou, the party’s former executive director who left at the end of July.
asserted
who → flee → July
Isidorou represented the wider coalition that the B.C. Conservatives could be and directed the party towards that end.
uncertain
Conservatives → represent → end
Former party president Aisha Estey also resigned in the last few weeks.
asserted
Estey → resign → weeks
As mind boggling as all the departures are, in response Findlay has said herself that more might follow.
uncertain
more → boggle → response
She’s probably right and, based on the current flow rate, I would advise readers to check the news upon completion of this column for wind of who else has decided to pull the ripcord.
asserted
who → ’ → ripcord
During her time as leader Findlay made some eyebrow raising hires, as they signaled a more stridently right-wing turn.
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they → make → turn
As her chief of staff, she appointed Chris Delaney, perhaps best known for his ties to former Social Credit Premier Bill Vander Zalm, notable for refusing to cover abortion costs under provincial health care.
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she → appoint → care
Then she named Apollo Chung, a former member of the separatist Alberta Republican Party, as her director of operations.
asserted
she → name → operations
Embarrassingly for Findlay, Chung was fired on Wednesday, following the release of recordings in which he made comments that he didn’t “care about saving the province,” that “white people are like crazy” and that he has “the leader in his hands.”
asserted
he → fire → hands
He further added dubious comments about his plans for funds raised by the Conservatives, saying he would go in and “steal everything” to use for his aims for the party.
asserted
he → add → party
Findlay’s critics says she and her team have created a massive culture problem within the party, rewarding blind loyalty over competence and treating those outside the leader’s circle poorly.
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she → say → circle
The most recent MLA to depart, Brennan Day spoke to the general tenor of those who have left when he said on X on Wednesday “The current direction of Conservative Party of BC under Kerry-Lynne Findlay is no longer something I can support.
asserted
I → depart → Findlay
More fundamentally, I have lost confidence in the judgement, conduct and ethical standards of her leadership and those she has chosen to surround herself with.”
asserted
she → lose → herself
Former president Estey too voiced her views on X Wednesday: “Can’t wait for conservatives to start electing respectful, kind, and ethical human beings again.”
asserted
conservatives → voice → beings
Then there was Dan Knight, Ms. Findlay’s digital director during her leadership campaign, who today posted on X a meme of a dumpster fire.
asserted
who → be → fire
The vibe being given off is not that the B.C. Conservatives are for everyone, but rather that they represent the fringe they used to in the days when they garnered two percent of the vote; that is to say every day prior to the 2024 election under John Rustad’s leadership.
asserted
that → give → leadership
Consider for a moment that by nearly every relevant metric the Premier David Eby’s government has been an absolute failure for B.C.
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government → consider → B.C.
This year, the province experienced it first decline in population ever as unaffordable housing has driven residents out.
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housing → experience → residents
Fiscally, the NDP has been heaping record deficit upon record deficit with no plan to get out of the tailspin that generations of British Columbians will be paying for.
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generations → heap → Columbians
Eby’s loose drug policies have been an abject failure and seriously harmed safety downtown.
asserted
policies → harm → safety
Following the government’s reluctance to defend them, private property rights in B.C. are under question and the Eby NDP seems set to storm ahead with signing away huge tracks of the province to First Nations with little or no public input.
asserted
NDP → follow → input
Meanwhile, the BC. economy is stalled and has become a laggard in Canada.
asserted
economy → stall → Canada
Businesses like Canfor, a large forestry company, have relocated to the United States.
asserted
Businesses → relocate → States
Following nine years of NDP government in British Columbia, if Kerry-Lynne Findlay and her crew had even a modicum of focus or sophistication, they would cakewalk to forming the next government, but they don’t.
asserted
they → follow → government
Despite the mile-long charge sheet against David Eby, current polls put the NDP well out ahead of Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s Conservatives.
asserted
polls → put → Conservatives
One recent poll by respected pollster Dimitri Pantazopoulos had the NDP leading 46 per cent to 40 per cent among decided voters.
asserted
NDP → have → voters
That’s easily an NDP majority and, depending on vote distribution, could be landslide territory.
uncertain
That → ’ → distribution
British Columbians want a return to sensible, economically driven decision making that will get the province out of the social and economic nosedive of the past decade.
asserted
province → want → decade
That should be an easy political message to sell.
asserted
That → sell → ?
However, the only thing the current B.C. Conservative actions will guarantee for British Columbians is another term under David Eby.
asserted
actions → guarantee → Eby
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