VANCOUVER — Calling one’s political opponents racist is nothing new, but the BC NDP has taken the practice one step further, by calling the province of British Columbia itself racist — this, according to a video posted last week by the Conservative Party of BC..The video, first shared on Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s X account, compiles public statements by NDP figures and frames them as evidence that the government is promoting divisive identity politics rather than a shared sense of provincial belonging. Findlay’s accompanying caption stated that the NDP calls British Columbia “racist,” “colonial” and “genocidal,” and has even suggested the term “British Columbian” itself is offensive..In the roughly 75-second video, the Conservatives contrast what they describe as the NDP’s framing with their own view of British Columbia as a province of hardworking families proud to call it home. The post presents the NDP’s language as part of a recurring tactic that singles out non-indigenous residents, particularly white British Columbians, for historical guilt..The video draws on statements already on the public record. One prominent example is a May 2025 legislative statement by NDP MLA Rohini Arora of Burnaby East. In it, Arora urged non-indigenous British Columbians — and “white folks” in particular — to self-identify as “settlers,” “colonizers” or “uninvited guests” as a signal of understanding the history of colonization..Findlay’s video places Arora’s comments within what the Conservatives describe as a larger pattern. It also encompasses ongoing government communications and legislative debate around the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, better known as DRIPA, and related title and reconciliation matters, where critics of government policy have at times been portrayed as engaging in "denialism" — a term David Eby either failed, or chose not to, define last week when asked to during a press conference last week..As of Monday morning, no senior NDP figure, including Arora or Premier David Eby’s office, had issued a public response to the specific video posted by Findlay.Eby did not directly address the content of Findlay’s video during a press conference last Friday. The premier did, however, single out the Conservative Party of BC’s new caucus communications director, Cosmin Dzsurdzsa, during the same press conference..“The Conservatives have hired a communications director who thinks the conservative movement is strengthened by including people who would deport Canadians who happen to not be white back to what are supposedly their home countries even though they were born in Canada,” Eby said. “Now that is a reprehensible racist view.”.Dzsurdzsa, himself a first-generation immigrant, later clarified the context of past comments in a reply to questions from the Western Standard.In a February exchange with former Alberta premier Jason Kenney, Dzsurdzsa had described a Juno News debate between Candice Malcolm and Daniel Tyrie on the concept of “remigration” as an important discussion..When Kenney criticized the exchange and questioned what "remigration" meant, Dzsurdzsa replied that he was referring to the value of debate itself, and that as a first-generation immigrant he wanted to understand what the term meant because he would inevitably be impacted by any such policy.“I never took a position on emigration,” Dzsurdzsa said in clarifying the record for the Western Standard.He stated he had been defending the decision to debate the ideas and seeking clarity on their meaning..The video posted by Findlay and comments from Dzsurdzsa position the Conservatives as defenders of a colour-blind, shared-identity vision of British Columbia. It also signals that debates over DRIPA implementation, aboriginal title, and property rights will likely remain central to the party’s critique of the NDP government in the lead-up to a future election, despite the premier's best efforts to characterize discussion of such subjects as "racist."
