BC Conservative Leader John Rustad, right, pauses to confer with BC United Leader Kevin Falcon while responding to questions during a news conference, in Vancouver, on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. A series of candidates for British Columbia's upcoming provincial election have disappeared off the B.C. Conservative's website with some BC United nominees taking their place. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A series of candidates for British Columbia’s upcoming provincial election have disappeared from the B.C. Conservatives’ online list of nominees, as some former BC United members move into the Conservative fold after last week’s reshaping of the province’s political landscape.
But the shake up drew fire from some former candidates.
They complained the Conservatives were being infiltrated by the Official Opposition – whose leader Kevin Falcon ended BC United’s campaign last Wednesday – and at least one said they planned to run as an independent.
Falcon and B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad last week announced a deal to pool candidates under the Conservative banner to avoid vote splitting that could favour Premier David Eby’s NDP in the Oct. 19 election.
Some of those whose names no longer appear on the Conservatives’ website 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 replaced 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.”
Another former Conservative candidate, Dupinder Kaur Saran, said on Monday on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that she would be running as an independent in Surrey-Panorama because another Conservative had been “bullied” into standing there instead.
“The Provincial Conservative Party is now a Liberal Party running under the Conservative Banner,” she wrote.
Several former BC United candidates have now been added to the Conservative ranks.
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.
McInnes said in a video posted on Facebook that he spoke to Rustad several times over the last few days before deciding to accept the Conservative slot.
“I feel like this is the group moving forward that has a really special chance to defeat the NDP and turn this province around and I really want to be a part of that for the people here of Columbia River Revelstoke,” he said.
But 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.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2024
