B.C. Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned Sunday, marking an end to her tumultuous tenure.
The head of the Opposition announced the move in a statement posted to social media.
“This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one for our movement and our province,” she wrote.
Since assuming the leadership role on May 30, the B.C. Conservative caucus has been beset by resignations and ousters as well as rapid turnover among senior staff, and bombshell revelation that the party had hired a private investigator to look into Findlay’s critics.
Findlay had been defiant in the face of the exodus, repeatedly describing the chaos in the party as growing pains.
“I had hoped to spend these first months travelling our province, listening to British Columbians, earning their trust, and making the case for what a strong, united Conservative movement could accomplish,” Findlay wrote Sunday.
“Instead, from the outset, too much of our time and attention has been consumed by internal conflict.”
The resignation came on the heels of Surrey-Serpentine MLA Linda Hepner announcing her resignation and slamming the party’s leadership.
Findlay did not have a seat in the legislature when she won the leadership race by a narrow margin and she is running in a byelection in Abbotsford-Mission where advanced voting is already underway
The Conservatives won 44 seats to the B.C. NDP’s 47 in the last B.C. election, but ousters and defections have left the party with 24.
“There comes a moment when leadership requires you to consider not simply whether you can continue a fight, but whether continuing that fight serves the people and the cause you entered public life to serve,” Findlay’s statement said.
“I have reached that moment.”
With the Opposition in disarray, speculation has been intensifying that Premier David Eby is set to call a snap election.
Pollster Mario Canseco of Research Co. told CTV News Findlay’s departure could change the calculus when it comes to the possibility of sending voters to the polls because the door may be open for disaffected right of centre MLAs and remaining party members to work together again.
If that happens, rolling the dice on an early election could prove costly for Eby and the NDP.
“I think there’s an opportunity for dialog between those who remain in caucus and those who left. It’s pretty clear that the people who decided to walk away from the B.C. Conservative caucus did so because they didn’t like Kerry-Lynne Findlay,” Canseco said.
“Once you remove Kerry-Lynne Findlay, the opportunity to establish something that is more meaningful, more centered on policy, less focused on culture wars, could certainly provide the unity that they require.”
