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.
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“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
Karen-Lynne Findlay 🤣🤣
Anything is better than an environmental activist that was born and raised in Ont, living in point grey having garden parties laughing with his wealthy friends at the homeless saying folks on welfare get a job, and living on street, seniors should be cut back on benefits, he’s only in it for the gravy train. Wealthy people are disrespectful and arrogant just like union people.
I have to ask “Global reader”.
Is Trump in the room with you right now?
B.C conservatives? I think the rest of the country calls them liberals.
Finlay is exactly the kind of Trump-like idiot the NDP needs to ensure an easy victory in the upcoming election
Findlay is nothing like she is being accused of. She will handle Eby and the NDP. She is also pragmatic which seems to be a good thing right now. She is smart and capable. Don’t sell her short.
K – Go back to Europe
JV go back to the reservation.
great, sounds like the cons are on the right track. hopefully they allow mining in the north to take place the people up there are struggling.
K – Does K stand for kindergarten? Because your post looks like a child pieced it together one word at a time 😂
She has nothing to do or think like Trump she is a very smart lady and can get us out of the mess the NDP has done she has done it before the only ones complaining on here are the NDP.
This crazy woman has no chance at becoming being premier of BC. The BC Conservatives are cooked
And….there you go..
The true face of the facist lite B.C. Conservatives shines through…
Would have voted for them if Milobar was leader. NEVER as long as the Trumpist Findllay is.
Wow, if BC wasn’t done for before, we are now. Thank you BC Cons for being the sh*tbag party you are and leaving us nothing against Eby and his f*scist party! Between the frigging FN and NDP with no opposition, that dont leave many options for BCers who want to get rid of the NDP/FN harness.
Revolt is the only way they are leaving us.
Oh wonderful. What the world DOES NOT need is another person who thinks like the “Adolph the orange headed monster”
And now there’s no option for centerist voters. BC Conservative Party will implode once the new leader says something ignorant or racist.
This crazy woman has no chance of winning. BC Cons are a joke
JV how did Eby get elected?
“When Eby initially ran to replace John Horgan as leader of the BC NDP, he did not face a final vote. His sole opponent, Anjali Appadurai, was disqualified by the party executive council for campaign violations. ”
He won by default! lol
Well I guess it’s Eby then. He’s twice as smart as her, just like Carney haqs five times the degrees as PP.
It’s to bad Halford did not pony up, more center, then what is comimg
I,m 67 and sitting in my back yard having a cold drink, not thinking about the next 25 years it will take to earase the dept.
my grandmother is 71 and should not be the next canditate for the leader of the province
just had a listen on global news bias already with the new leader
Trump would love her
“Our homes, our individual rights, our properties are at stake.”
A complete and total lie
Just shows how much of a low life the NDP are.
Anonymous – and your father is your uncle
JV seen your comments … your mother should have aborted
She looks like a racist Karen from Surrey 🤣
Great. We need another antisemite…
This party laughed at the NDP’s warnings about Rustad.
Then their own MLA’s started calling him a “crook” and “corrupt.”
This loser will be gone too. Watch.
Like last time Cons laughed when I said watch. Bye Rustad. Crook!
Of course they picked another John Rustad, and barely at that. She already has 49% of her own party’s votes against her.
Why pick a loser?
Global Zussman and Baldrey and Palmer are going to bend over backwards to discredit her but BC Conservatives will win because the people want change!
Her speech mirrors the Orange guy’s rhetorical. What choice rightnuts. Cons are going to spit again.
Looks like a ream of paper? Check. How diverse.
Global News looses credibility by mistakenly revealing their Left Bias.
Major media watchdogs classify Global News as having a “Lean Left” or “Left-Center” bias, meaning their reporting and story choices moderately align with liberal or progressive perspectives.
The NDP and Global will try anything to discredit her.
Exampl
Listen to the ignorant lies the NDP MLAs made up.( while I would have chosen Black or someone younger, she is good enough.) If you look up her wiki and CV you can see she was a member of the human right council for five years and specialised in civil and family law. Just because you are conservative doesnt mean you are pro Trump.
Regardless, all anyone needs to win the next election is say “I will repeal DRIPA” and it’s a done deal.
Eby would have done it already if he didn’t chicken out.
And sure, let them protest and blockade. Blocking bridges did wonders for the image of the environmentalist. Even got a bunch thrown in jail and tagged with a criminal record.
Let’s bring this into the open and go at it once and for all. Cops, military whatever it takes .
Great news! Now let us get the disastrous NDP out of office and start rebuilding this moribund province.
As an Alberta, when I cross the border between Grande Prairie/ Dawson Creek you notice how BC is so third world in comparison.
Awesome point Ron.
Supposedly I am racist because I want tax payer equity and voter representation when dealing with FN claims and demands.
I am racist because I don’t accept retro active guilt and collective punishment the citizens of today for the actions of the past.
Same tired tropes by the NDP. Every white conservative in Canada is a MAGA/Trump Supporter
Almost every news story is going to the NDP for commentary on this election. Pathetic. The NDP is, once again, running the province into the ground. They call Conservatives “racist” for noticing and mentioning issues that just happen to be race or culture related.
@Greg Who cares why they vote for her. Just so long as they vote. Geez … wake up man the Eby NDP are a disaster.
NDP …. The sky is falling, The sky is falling. Donald Trump, Donald Trump.
When it is their own terrible policies and mismanagement of BC that will be their downfall. It can’t come soon enough. Good riddance !!!
good choice, time to take out eby
The only reason anyone will vote for her is that they’re voting against Eby…
Pretty biased reporting global. At least the times colonist was balanced. Now hopefully we can get her into the Premier’s chair and try to fix the NDP incompetence. Going to be difficult for sure. Eby had done a great job wrecking the province.
what slanderous and ignorant accusations from NDP.. of course they will try to use trump as fodder. NDP align with Chinese Communist Party on many issues so shud they be accused of being more like Xi than Canadian??
Ever notice how crazy and deranged these lefties get about conservatives? Even when they’re in power and their team is in control they’re still miserable.
Canada is PATHETIC and Canadians Are Entirely to Blame.
the ballet box and your vote are psychological pacifiers, they grant you the privilege of choosing which corporate owned sociopath gets to hold the whip for the next 4 years, Do you really want her holding the whip??? No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution!
She looks like another cnt like smith
They threw out Rustad finally and this new one already has 49% vote against her. lol
Just barely. Rustad’s party is a joke.
Racist? Just because she is against the indigenous taking land from the citizens of BC? It’s like people calling Ukrainians racist because Russia wants to take the Ukraine land away from the citizens.
Disgusting “journalism “. Racist? Shame on you Global!
She’s not racist. She’s stating a fact that milo bar was in conflict of interest. The indigenous groups, and milobar himself,made it racist
Eby’s track record means he’s toast. Findlay has the legal and political experience to reverse many of the failed policies he’s foisted upon the province. British Columbians are fed up with the NDP mess. Unfortunately it could get ugly trying to get out of his disasters.
Meh, I can live with her.
At least she had 20 year private practice career and played the political game at its highest level. More credibility and experience than the last 4 ones NDP and CON/LIB.
Regardless I think Eby is done for.
Now it really is the blind leading the blind!
MR. EBY THANKS YOU !!!!!
At Polidan
You and me both!
Hmmm I am not sure she is the right pick. Not as bad as Rustad but still a little on the loon side for me.
Comes across like too much like an angry Karen.
I guess she is moderate enough,
That said a dead person could he’s Eby these days.
I have always voted NDP because our provincial NDP best represents my own values and in my opinion have done a great job of keeping our province above water despite countless natural disasters, a pandemic, the opioid crisis and inherited a healthcare system that was underfunded for decades relative to population growth. They don’t always get it right, but overall they try to listen to their constituents and course correct when they make mistakes.
Despite all that, I feel so bad for our moderate conservatives in this province and beyond that are continually stuck with options that don’t fairly represent their values and needs. I might not align with conservative beliefs but I believe they deserve fair representation that doesn’t leave them forced to choose between a left wing party and a brand of conservatism that is an insult to the majority of conservatives who are logical, caring and want the best for the province.
Time to get to work Kerry and pull this province back from the verge of extinction created under the NDP debacle ” let’s get BC back to where it was “
good outcome
Not my first choice but an acceptable outcome. Now let’s get to an election and boot the NDP to the dust bin of history!
@SM
What is your ethnicity? Are you scared that the indians are gonna lose out on the gravy train?
And I thought the Lefties were idiots! KL Findlay is the poorest choice out there. Married to a racist and dumb as a post. Time to move out of BC because there is NO hope in sight.