After the Triple O summit, the table talk turned to coalition

PENTICTON — Four days after nearly 60 people packed a White Spot basement on Dunsmuir Street, a smaller group of self-described "small-business and free-enterprise" figures sat down Sunday morning for a second sitting.There were no cameras this time, and no lobbyists, according to accounts of the session that circulated Sunday afternoon.The follow-up over the weekend was described as something more substantial — paycheque-signers and major party donors contemplating their next move in a province whose Official Opposition has been shedding MLAs by the day.The idea on the table, as it was put to people briefed on the room, is a coalition that would pull from three old tribes at once — Harper Conservatives, Carney Liberals and Horgan New Democrats.Tim Thielmann, chief of staff to OneBC MLA Tara Armstrong, quote-posted the first public account of the sitting and gave it a shorter name..“A Coalition of the Wishful,” he wrote. “You can’t move the economy forward while it is stuck on the reconciliation treadmill.”.Work on a real name is already under way, CKNW host Jas Johal said Sunday.If the rumours are true, one label being thrown around in organizer circles is, "the British Columbia Party."The platform being shopped is four-item menu: grow the economy; control government spending; develop the resources; and deal with affordability."Faith, family and freedom" did not come up, the room was later described as saying. Neither did a plan to stop pipelines, interestingly.Kerry-Lynne Findlay has lost seven MLAs since August 14.The sitting Conservative bench that took 44 seats in October 2024 is now down to 30, with Reann Gasper’s Abbotsford-Mission resignation counted separately so Findlay can run the September 26 by-election..Who would actually sit in a Harper–Carney–Horgan vehicle is the part nobody has put on a letterhead.The Western Standard has not been given a list. What follows is speculation and should read as such.Could the former BC Liberal in the mix be Peter Milobar? The Kamloops Centre MLA left Findlay’s caucus on August 14, said his values no longer lined up with her “new direction,” and has already told reporters he and Delta South’s Ian Paton intend to register a new party with Elections BC before the fall sitting.Could the former BC NDP name be Selina Robinson? The Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA served in John Horgan’s cabinet, then David Eby’s, until she was dropped in February 2024 after calling pre-Israel Palestine “a crappy piece of land.” She left the NDP caucus that March, citing antisemitism she said the party would not confront, and did not run in 2024. She is the highest-profile Horgan-era New Democrat now outside the tent.Could the former Harper minister be Ed Fast? The Abbotsford MP was international trade minister in Stephen Harper’s cabinet and remains a Fraser Valley fixture in a week when Findlay is trying to win a seat one riding over. . The Carney-Liberal chair already has one documented occupant from Wednesday, if the two sittings overlap at all. Matt Stickney, a Surrey-raised former senior adviser in Justin Trudeau’s PMO, was among the people the Western Standard identified last week at the White Spot. Colin Hansen, Gordon Campbell’s old finance minister, and Jordan Bateman of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association were the two names Global put on camera. .Bateman said the Conservative Party of BC was “falling apart at the seams” and that more defections were coming. He wanted a fiscal vehicle. He no longer thought this caucus was it.Meanwhile, Monday’s BC Conservative caucus meeting in Richmond was cancelled late Saturday. Findlay and the party posted nothing Sunday morning. A party-wide email later called off the press conference that was to follow the session.

After the Triple O summit, the table talk turned to coalition

Related Stories

THE TRIPLE O SUMMIT: A literal underground meeting in a White Spot basement

Four adults, four youths arrested after loaded AR-15-style gun found in Toronto

Parti Québécois vows no referendum while Trump remains president

WATCH: UK police violently arrest white man after he is attacked, punched by black men