The B.C. Conservatives lost another member of caucus Sunday, with the resignation of Linda Hepner. The Surrey-Serpentine River MLA provided CTV News with the messages she sent to embattled leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay Sunday. Hepner cited the ouster of three MLAs—including former leader John Rustad—as the trigger for her decision. “To me, it is beyond the pale of common sense to remove experienced voices rather than find a way to listen to them,” her message to Findlay said, noting that Rustad “built this party from a single elected member.” Rustad was removed from caucus along with Surrey-White Rock MLA and former interim leader Trevor Halford and Skeena MLA Claire Rattée late last week. Hepner, in her resignation statement, explicitly criticized the party’s leadership saying she had “lost confidence” in Findlay’s willingness to “listen, to seek experienced advice, and to consider perspectives beyond (her) immediate circle.” The chaos in the party—including the recent revelation that a private investigator had been hired to look into Findlay’s critics—had become a distraction from the work of holding office and representing her constituents, Hepner’s resignation statement said. “My tolerance of the current upheaval has been exhausted,” she wrote. The Conservatives won 44 seats to the B.C. NDP’s 47 in the last B.C. election, but ousters and defections have now left the party with 24. Hepner’s resignation comes as speculation intensifies that Premier David Eby will call a snap election. Meanwhile, Findlay, who was not in office when she won the Conservative leadership contest, is currently gearing up to seek a seat in the legislature in a byelection in the Abbotsford-Mission riding on Sept. 26. She’ll face candidates from the NDP, CentreBC, Green and Libertarian parties.
