‘I am unapologetic’: Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie speaks out following recall petition

Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie speaks to CTV News Vancouver's Yasmin Gandham in a one-on-one interview.

Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie sat down with CTV News for an interview Friday after Elections BC approved a recall petition to remove her from office.

“For all the people who are upset with me, there is also a huge chunk who are happy with me, which is politics,” said Brodie.

Brodie is not surprised by the recall campaign launched against her by Dorothy Cumming, a resident in her riding.

“As much as Dorothy Cumming wants to stomp her feet and have her tantrum about the fact that she doesn’t like what I’m saying, I can’t control that,” Brodie said.

Elections BC said it would issue the petition against Brodie on Thursday after approving an application that says Brodie is unfit to represent the riding.

Brodie was elected as a B.C. Conservative in October 2024, but was kicked out after then-leader John Rustad said she had mocked residential school survivors. Brodie now sits in the legislature as the interim leader of OneBC, a party she started with fellow former Conservative MLA Tara Armstrong, who has since left the party. Brodie is currently OneBC’s only MLA.

“I don’t think my comments were ever directed at denying peoples pain,” said Brodie. “There have been no bodies found and that is a fact.”

CTV News asked Brodie if she would apologize for the hurt that her comments caused the Indigenous community, to which she replied: “I am unapologetic.”

“I am unapologetic about the position I took and the situation that came up and this desire to have me somewhat submit to this requirement,” Brodie said.

Cumming is a resident of Vancouver-Quilchena, but despite living in the riding, Cumming provided Elections BC with a mailing address in Langley – one that matches Imagine Surrey.

Imagine Surrey is a municipal party running former NDP legislator Mike Starchuk as a candidate for that city’s mayoralty.

Scott Williams, campaign manager for Imagine Surrey, said the party’s financial agent Cindy Dalglish was involved in the Brodie recall, but Imagine Surrey is “not paying for, subsidizing, staffing, or otherwise supporting any other campaign.”

“To be clear: we have no involvement whatsoever in the Vancouver-Quilchena recall petition. None,” said Williams in an email to CTV News.

When asked about the mailing address provided at a news conference in Vancouver Thursday, Cumming said she “was nervous.”

“I was nervous and another person stepped forward so that the public would only get my name and I was able to use another address and phone number,” Cumming said.

She did not specify that the address was associated with Dalglish, though Imagine Surrey did confirm to CTV News that Dalglish is involved in the recall campaign.

The campaign to remove Brodie from office will have until July 20 to collect the necessary 15.232 signatures to remove her and trigger a byelection, something none of the 30 previous recall petitions since 1995 have succeeded in doing.

“If that results in me being booted out at the next election, so be it, that’s politics,” said Brodie.