Surrey Conservative MLA Hepner wants to give Findlay ‘runway’ to fix ‘chaos’
Published 1:00 pm Friday, September 4, 2026
Surrey-Serpentine River Conservative MLA and former Surrey mayor Linda Hepner says she will afford embattled party leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay a “pathway” to resolve matters in the wake of a recent exodus of MLAs from her caucus.
“There’s a lot of innuendo out there and who is leaving next scenarios,” Hepner told the Now-Leader on September 3. “I certainly believe that we are in a situation that requires very careful crisis management and I am going to give Kerry-Lynne Findlay the runway that she deserves while she’s trying to win a byelection and I will make my own decisions as things move on but right now I’m doing my own due diligence.”
“I am not in any way prepared at this point in time to jump ship,” she said. “She was a duly elected elected leader and I want to give her the opportunity to see where this byelection takes her.
“I don’t believe that making a decision at a time of chaos is the right time to do it, and I’m not going to do it.”
Findlay is seeking a personal election win in Abbotsford-Mission on September 26.
Bryan Tepper, Conservative MLA for Surrey-Panorama, said September 3 that the Conservatives have a “strong party and brand and I don’t think abandoning it is a smart course of action.”
Fellow Surrey Conservative MLAs Mandeep Dhaliwal (Surrey North), Trevor Halford (Surrey-White Rock) and Brent Chapman (Surrey South, and Findlay’s husband) have not responded to requests for comment.
Surrey-Cloverdale Independent MLA Elenore Sturko, bounced from the Conservative caucus by former leader John Rustad in 2025, said it’s “not surprising” to see many of her former colleagues leaving under Findlay’s leadership.
“I think that we’ve seen her surround herself with people for example with connections to the Alberta separatist movement,” Sturko said, “and her firing of many moderate voices even within the staff structure, so I’m not surprised by that.”