BREAKING: Findlay resigns as Conservative Party of BC leader

PENTICTON — Conservative Party of BC leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned Sunday, effective immediately, and said she will remain the party's candidate in the Abbotsford-Mission byelection.She posted the decision to X at 1:32 p.m. PDT with a three-page statement on her letterhead.."Today, I am resigning as Leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia," she wrote. "This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one for our movement and our province."The letter says the fight among Conservatives had consumed the months since her May 30 win. "The battle for Conservatives should not be with other Conservatives," she wrote. "It must be with the NDP."Thursday she had told the Union of BC Municipalities convention she was staying. "I'm not going anywhere," she said from the podium, hours after sitting MLAs asked her to quit at an emergency caucus in a Vancouver office tower..She refused. Skeena MLA Claire Rattée later named herself as one of those two. The Western Standard heard from two additional sources that Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad was the other.."I have made decisions I would make differently with the benefit of hindsight," Findlay wrote. "I have listened. I have reflected. And I take responsibility for the decisions that were mine to make.""Attacks on someone's character and family, and threats directed toward them, cross a line that should concern all of us, regardless of our politics," she added. "I am a wife, a mother, and a grandmother."The Western Standard reported Saturday that elements of caucus had told her to resign that evening or a recording of her husband, Surrey South MLA Brent Chapman, would be released."I will not allow an internal battle over my leadership to become a continuing distraction from the work British Columbians need a strong opposition to do," she wrote. "So today, I am resigning as Leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, effective immediately.""Sometimes leadership means stepping forward. Sometimes leadership means standing your ground. And sometimes leadership means knowing when the interests of something larger than yourself require you to step aside.".She is not leaving the ballot, however."While I am stepping away from the leadership, I am not stepping away from public service," she wrote. "I will remain the Conservative candidate in Abbotsford-Mission and continue working to earn the confidence of the people who live there."Nominations closed September 5. Advance voting opened Friday and runs through Wednesday. Final voting day is Saturday.Party sources told the Western Standard Sunday that Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson is being considered for interim leader. Doerkson is deputy house leader in the June team Findlay named.

BREAKING: Findlay resigns as Conservative Party of BC leader

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