B.C. Conservatives recruit three more BC United MLAs, shaking up candidate list

The B.C. Conservatives have recruited three more sitting BC United legislators to run under their banner in the fall provincial election, shaking up the previous Conservative candidate list in a process that has angered some supplanted nominees.

Conservative Leader John Rustad said in a statement on Tuesday that Ian Paton, Peter Milobar and Trevor Halford were joining his party in what he called a sign of “growing momentum” to unite the ticket, after last week’s announcement that the Official Opposition BC United was shutting down its campaign.

Paton, who represents Delta South, and Halford, who is MLA for Surrey-White Rock, will continue to stand in those ridings, while Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Milobar will seek election in Kamloops Centre.

Paton, Milobar and Halford have become the first BC United MLAs to officially switch to the Conservatives since United Leader Kevin Falcon reshaped the B.C. political landscape last Wednesday by ending his party’s campaign to avoid splitting votes with the Conservatives that he feared would favour Premier David Eby’s NDP in the Oct. 19 election.

But the shake up has drawn fire from some former Conservative candidates.

They complained the Conservatives were being infiltrated by BC United in the process and at least one said she planned to run as an independent after losing her endorsement as a result of the manoeuvres.

Dupinder Kaur Saran said she was now planning an independent run in Surrey-Panorama, after making way for Brian Tepper, the Conservative who had previously been standing against Halford in Surrey-White Rock.

Saran said on social media on Monday that Tepper had been “bullied” into switching ridings.

“The Provincial Conservative Party is now a Liberal Party running under the Conservative Banner,” she wrote.

Saran wasn’t the only ousted Conservative who took to social media to complain about the changes and accuse the party of shifting its values.

Former Prince George-Mackenzie candidate Rachael Weber — whose social media content about the “5G Genocide” and the “anti christ” had drawn criticism from BC United — confirmed in a Facebook post that she had been removed as a candidate in what she called “a matter of deep sadness for me.”

“I believe this Conservative Party of BC is no longer Conservative but running under the guise of the name Conservative. They have allowed many BC United (Liberal) candidates to infiltrate the party and have lost sight of the real Conservative values we as Conservatives hold dear,” Weber wrote on Monday.

“Your new Conservative candidate for this riding will more than likely be BC United Liberal opposition.”

But Rustad was emphasizing a sense of unity in his statement.

“By bringing together strong conservative voices, we are building a united front ready to take on the NDP and restore common sense leadership to this province,” he said.

The statement quoted Milobar as saying it was “time for conservatives to unite,” while Halford said the party represented a “clear unified alternative” to the NDP.

In an interview with Radio NL in Kamloops on Tuesday, Milobar acknowledged he had been critical of Rustad’s party in the past and still had “some policy differences” with the B.C. Conservatives.

“I will bring my perspective and my voice around those topics to the caucus table, if I’m fortunate enough to be elected, and I hope to be able to sway the conversation. That’s how caucuses work. That’s how a good, functioning democracy works,” he said.

Other new recruits to the Conservative candidate ranks were being added at a rapid pace.

Former BC United candidate in Burnaby North Michael Wu will now represent the Conservatives there, with that party’s former nominee, Simon Chandler, moved to Burnaby East.

Former BC United nominees Scott McInnes in Columbia River Revelstoke, and Keenan Adams in Port Coquitlam, meanwhile become the Conservative candidates in those ridings instead.

University of Victoria political scientist Justin Leifso said the changes are happening so quickly that it’s hard to get a sense of what impact they might have.

He said Rustad has used the opportunity to moderate some voices on the candidate list, such as by getting rid of Weber who was widely mocked online, but at the same time has to make sure his candidates are “consistent” with the brand of conservatism that has been successful so far.

Leifso said the short six-week timeline before British Columbians vote might help the Conservatives and former BC United teams stay on the same page until the election.

“Eventually, after the election, whether they win or lose, if they’re in government or opposition, they’re going to have to get along then too,” he said.

“How is (the party) going to operate, and how are they going to get along in a caucus, in the party structure, all of these things, in the longer term as well?”

The merging of the two parties’ candidate pools has not gone entirely smoothly on the BC United side.

Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier has publicly floated the idea that he and other former BC United candidates could run as independents instead.

On Sunday, he said on Facebook that Falcon had “back stabbed all of us, and actually just made it easier for the NDP to win.”

“I will not stand by and watch that happen,” he added.

BC United’s Jackie Tegart, who has been MLA in Fraser-Nicola since 2013, on Tuesday became the latest of the party’s longtime candidates to announce she would no longer be running.

Incumbents Shirley Bond and Todd Stone last week announced they were not running again.

Falcon’s decision to shut down BC United’s campaign came amid a surge in popularity for the Conservatives and the collapse in United support. MLAs who had already defected to the Conservatives include Elenore Sturko, Lorne Doerkson, Teresa Wat and Bruce Banman, while Rustad himself was kicked out of the Opposition caucus by Falcon in 2022 when the party was known as the B.C. Liberals.

The Conservatives now have 87 candidates listed on their website, with 93 ridings at stake in the election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2024

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press