{"id":705355,"date":"2026-05-31T07:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/705355\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T07:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T07:11:11","slug":"kerry-lynne-findlay-voted-new-leader-of-the-bc-conservative-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/705355\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry-Lynne Findlay voted new leader of the BC Conservative Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kerry-Lynne Findlay has been voted the new leader of the BC Conservative Party.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Caroline Elliott came a very close second with 49 per cent of the vote.<\/p>\n

In a speech after her win, Findlay said that she wants \u201cthe generations now and to come to feel they can have a comfortable and happy life as British Columbians. Isn\u2019t that what we all want?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what am I fighting for? I\u2019m fighting for nothing less than the future of British Columbia. Our way of life. Mine is a grand vision of fundamental change.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe 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\u2019s economic vandalism has to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement released after Findlay\u2019s win, the BC NDP said \u201cThe pro-Trump wing of the B.C. Conservatives has seized control of the party with Kerry-Lynne Findlay\u2019s win, thanks in part to her racist attacks on her leadership opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cKerry-Lynne Findlay and her supporters in caucus have more in common with Donald Trump\u2019s Republicans than they do with Canadian Conservatives,\u201d said Jennifer Whiteside, MLA for New Westminster-Coquitlam. \u201cEven B.C. Conservative MLAs say British Columbians should think twice before voting for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BC NDP said Findlay\u2019s campaign included a direct racist attack<\/a>\u00a0on Peter Milobar, claiming he was in a conflict of interest on DRIPA because his wife and children are Indigenous.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

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\u201cMilobar described her attack as \u201cthe worst side of politics possible<\/a>\u201d and said her victory would \u201cgive a lot of British Columbians pause for thought of whether they would actually vote for a party like this\u2019,\u201d the party said in the statement.<\/p>\n

B.C. Premier David Eby did send out a congratulatory tweet after Findlay\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

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Congratulations, @KerryLynneFindl<\/a> on being elected the leader of the BC Conservative party. British Columbians are served by thoughtful debate, principled leadership, and a commitment to public service. I will work with anyone who is interested in putting people first.<\/p>\n

\u2014 David Eby (@Dave_Eby) May 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt is a race that has been shaped very much about articulating opposition to the direction of the NDP, but also opposition between one another,\u201d Stewart Prest, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said on Friday, after the vote closed.<\/p>\n

More than 25,000 party members cast ballots in the race.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Each of B.C.\u2019s 93 electoral districts has been allocated 100 points, or one point per ballot cast, if fewer than 100 ballots were cast in that district<\/p>\n

Points were distributed among contestants proportionally based on first-choice votes within each district and the province-wide total.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis contest is really less about which leader and whose ideas, but more about what kind of conservatism is going to follow from this,\u201d David Black, an associate professor at Royal Roads University, told Global BC earlier on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:10
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBC Conservative leadership candidate debate\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Under John Rustad\u2019s leadership, the party emerged from obscurity to come within about 30,000 votes of winning the 2024 provincial election.<\/p>\n

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Infighting fractured the caucus and reduced Conservative members in the legislature by five, and eventually led to Rustad\u2019s expulsion in December.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the leadership vote gathering on Saturday, interim leader Trevor Halford said, \u201cNot\u00a0too long ago, our opponents were writing us off. They said there was no path forward, and they said that our party was finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think we broke a few hearts tonight. I can tell you, this party is just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halford also thanked Rustad for his hard work and dedication to the BC Conservative Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident because I know that whoever we elect as our new leader tonight will be the next premier of British Columbia,\u201d Halford added.<\/p>\n

-with files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kerry-Lynne Findlay has been voted the new leader of the BC Conservative Party. In a tight race that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[256509,110683,43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-705355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bc-conservative-leader","tag-bc-conservatives","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}