Kerry-Lynne Findlay voted new leader of the BC Conservative Party

Kerry-Lynne Findlay has been voted the new leader of the BC Conservative Party.

In a tight race that came down to four rounds of voting, Findlay received 4,696.51 points, or 51 per cent of the vote, to win.

Caroline Elliott came a very close second with 49 per cent of the vote.

In a speech after her win, Findlay said that she wants “the generations now and to come to feel they can have a comfortable and happy life as British Columbians. Isn’t that what we all want?

“So what am I fighting for? I’m fighting for nothing less than the future of British Columbia. Our way of life. Mine is a grand vision of fundamental change.

Our homes, our individual rights, our properties are at stake. We need hope and prosperity. As Minister of National Revenue, I oversaw lower taxes, red tape cuts and a return to surplus from the worst recession since the 1930s. We can do this in British Columbia. Our province will become strong, good-paying jobs, modern infrastructure, resource, wealth and opportunity that has been blocked by the NDP.

“We can be a powerhouse in our nation, a powerhouse no longer denied by eastern and global elites, predatory foreign nations and our own constitution. NDP radical ideology has devastated property rights, backroom side agreements and the NDP’s economic vandalism has to end.”

In a statement released after Findlay’s win, the BC NDP said “The pro-Trump wing of the B.C. Conservatives has seized control of the party with Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s win, thanks in part to her racist attacks on her leadership opponents.

“Kerry-Lynne Findlay and her supporters in caucus have more in common with Donald Trump’s Republicans than they do with Canadian Conservatives,” said Jennifer Whiteside, MLA for New Westminster-Coquitlam. “Even B.C. Conservative MLAs say British Columbians should think twice before voting for her.”

The BC NDP said Findlay’s campaign included a direct racist attack on Peter Milobar, claiming he was in a conflict of interest on DRIPA because his wife and children are Indigenous.

“Milobar described her attack as “the worst side of politics possible” and said her victory would “give a lot of British Columbians pause for thought of whether they would actually vote for a party like this’,” the party said in the statement.

B.C. Premier David Eby did send out a congratulatory tweet after Findlay’s win.

There were five candidates for the leadership race: Iain Black, Caroline Elliott, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Yuri Fulmer and Peter Milobar.

“It is a race that has been shaped very much about articulating opposition to the direction of the NDP, but also opposition between one another,” Stewart Prest, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said on Friday, after the vote closed.

More than 25,000 party members cast ballots in the race.

Online voting on a secret ballot started on May 23 and wrapped up on Friday morning. The ballot is a preferential or ranked ballot. Voters were asked to rank the candidates in order of their preference.

Each of B.C.’s 93 electoral districts has been allocated 100 points, or one point per ballot cast, if fewer than 100 ballots were cast in that district

Points were distributed among contestants proportionally based on first-choice votes within each district and the province-wide total.

If no candidate got more than 50 per cent of the province-wide points on the first ballot, the candidate with the lowest number of points is eliminated.

Their supporters second choice votes are then redistributed, and this continues until a candidate exceeds 50 per cent of the province-wide points.

“This contest is really less about which leader and whose ideas, but more about what kind of conservatism is going to follow from this,” David Black, an associate professor at Royal Roads University, told Global BC earlier on Saturday.

“What does the centre-right look like in B.C. amid deep kind of philosophical currents and a lot of turbulence within the conservative movement in general?”

Under John Rustad’s leadership, the party emerged from obscurity to come within about 30,000 votes of winning the 2024 provincial election.

Infighting fractured the caucus and reduced Conservative members in the legislature by five, and eventually led to Rustad’s expulsion in December.

Speaking at the leadership vote gathering on Saturday, interim leader Trevor Halford said, “Not too long ago, our opponents were writing us off. They said there was no path forward, and they said that our party was finished.

“Well, I think we broke a few hearts tonight. I can tell you, this party is just getting started.”

Halford also thanked Rustad for his hard work and dedication to the BC Conservative Party.

“I am confident because I know that whoever we elect as our new leader tonight will be the next premier of British Columbia,” Halford added.

-with files from The Canadian Press

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