With less than two months to go before the legislature is back in session, political turmoil continues to roil through the B.C. Conservative Party as the most recent defector calls on the leader to step down. Bruce Banman is the fifth MLA to leave the party this week alone, urging Kerry-Lynne Findlay to pull the plug on her leadership for the sake of the party. “Kerry-Lynne needs to do what’s right and resign,” he said in a one-on-one interview with CTV News. “Everywhere I went, everyone I talked to, they said ‘your leader is unelectable, like, what’s she doing?’ And it’s not just her; it’s been the entire leadership team that’s around her, and the staff that she hired.” Banman went on to urge his former colleagues to quit – or force Findlay to quit – after a particularly tumultuous week in which she denied suggestions she participated in a criminal offence. Former B.C. United MLA Mike Bernier, who recently became the leader of Centre B.C., is trying to lure the defectors to join his party rather than form a new one and is willing to fall on his sword to make them a political force in the legislature. “Let’s work together, (and) if that means that I have to step down as leader and we work together to find the best person to run Center B.C. as we’re working together with MLAs to give us party status in the house, absolutely,” he told CTV News on Friday. The idea of a leadership shakeup in two of the province’s political parties is just the latest head-scratching development this week, less than three months after Findlay won the leadership by the narrowest of margins. “She has no interest in leading a coalition-style party of liberals and conservatives… I think she’s going to hang on here,” said Hamish Telford, political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley. He pointed out that while the right wing of the province may be in disarray, “they could coalesce again before the next election, so the NDP can’t take anything for granted here.” A former deputy communications director for the B.C. Liberals and B.C. United parties agreed that he doesn’t expect Findlay to resign, but believes the Conservatives’ hard-right tack will not serve them well in the long term, even if a dedicated core of MLAs stand by Findlay. “Right now we’re seeing a party that doesn’t need to deal with nuance or compromise, but it also means that it will be more difficult for them to find an electoral victory in the next election,” suggested Andrew Reeve, now a senior public affairs consultant with Earnscliffe. “His is very much the populist wing of the B.C. Conservatives redefining and reorganizing the party along the lines that they want to pursue.” Rumours continue to swirl that more MLAs are poised to leave the party, potentially even ahead of a B.C. Conservative caucus meeting on Monday. Findlay’s staff issued a media advisory late Friday that she would be holding a press conference at 5 p.m. Monday. “She will be joined by the B.C. Conservative Caucus,” it specified.
