Conservatives accuse Findlay of ‘pandering’

PENTICTON — BC Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay spent Sunday at Abbotsford's annual Nagar Kirtan, then posted pictures from the event showing herself dressed in a mustard yellow salwar kameez.The overwhelmingly negative and critical responses on X called it "dress-up," "pandering," and "disappointing" for a politician who ran on a platform of traditional Christian values..Findlay wrote Monday that she had been "honoured to join the Sikh community in Abbotsford" at Gurdwara Kalgidhar Darbar Sahib. She thanked hosts for the welcome and said the city's strength "comes from the people who call it home."Four photographs show Findlay in the mustard kameez and matching chunni, talking with seated women on the gurdwara grounds, standing beside an Abbotsford Police traffic unit with the temple's onion domes behind her, posing for a selfie on the procession route, and stopping at a tent where a Findlay pamphlet sat on the table..By early Tuesday the post had passed 60,000 views. It carried about 200 likes against more than 360 replies and four dozen quote-posts."You're losing me on this one," wrote the account @noimmigration1. "Please stop pandering to ppl that shouldn't be here like the rest of the politicians.".Dave, posting as @bellatordave, told her she should have taken "the AfD route" and that the pictures would "haunt you forever now." He called it her "Trudeau or Pierre Mr.Dress up moment" and wrote, "You can't win by being someone else.".Other posts used the same two words: pandering, dress-up. Several told her she was "no longer a conservative."The reactions offer a revealing glimpse into the delicate tightrope-act politicians, and Conservatives in particular, must walk.In order to win, a Conservative leader like Findlay must do two things at once: hold enough support from a base suspicious of ethnic voting blocks, whilst also winning enough of the ethnic voting block muster a win and take a seat.Statistics Canada's 2021 count put 41,665 Sikhs in the Abbotsford-Mission census metropolitan area, 21.7% of the population — the highest Sikh share of any census metropolitan area in the province according to those who self-reported in the 2021 long-form census..Findlay is the Conservative candidate in the upcoming September 26 Abbotsford-Mission byelection. She lives in South Surrey alongside her husband, Brent Chapman, who holds his own legislature seat in the Surrey South riding. Reann Gasper resigned the Mission seat August 22 so Findlay could run.The ballot, which closed to new candidates on Saturday afternoon, includes Findlay, NDP candidate Pam Alexis, BC Green candidate Stephen Fowler, CentreBC's Lakhwinder Jhaj, and Libertarian Jeff Monds.Alexis, Fowler and Jhaj had not posted their own Nagar Kirtan pictures by Tuesday morning, although CentreBC did post a similar image of Jhaj at the nearby Khalsa Diwan Society in Abbotsford on Monday. The party said she had met the committee, thanked them for the welcome, and called listening "exactly the kind of leadership CentreBC believes in." .The Monday photo-op fits within a broader and decades-long pattern of Canadian politicians, at multiple levels of government, engaging in what some have called "pandering" and others have called "cultural outreach."Ahead of the last federal election, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre posted from Toronto's Nagar Kirtan on April 28, 2024. "Celebrated faith, family and freedom," he wrote. "Happy Vaisakhi!".Incidentally, Findlay borrowed the "faith, family and freedom" tagline as her own during the BC Conservative leadership race that culminated in May.Prime Minister Mark Carney did his own Ottawa version of "dress up" months later. On April 13, 2025 he posted that it had been "an honour to do seva at the Ottawa Sikh Society this morning." He and his wife Diana wished "a very happy Vaisakhi to all the Sikh Canadians celebrating across the country.".Premier David Eby ran the same circuit just recently. On August 13 he posted three photographs from the Sikh temple in Penticton, thanking the congregation for feeding wildfire evacuees. "British Columbians come together when neighbours need help," he wrote..OneBC Leader Dallas Brodie, who announced OneBC would "stand down" in the Abbotsford-Mission byelection in support of Findlay, mocked the visit and chastised the Premier for posing in front of Khalistan flags..CHEK commentator Mo Amir quoted Findlay's post and turned the pile-on into a joke at her expense. "I never thought the leopards would eat MY face," he wrote, "sobs Kerry-Lynne Findlay, leader of the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party, after seeing the responses to this Twitter post.".Findlay had not answered any of the replies or criticism by Tuesday morning. Instead, the Conservative Party of BC account spent Monday amplifying her Mission Memorial Hospital visit, focusing on an issue close to the heart of many constituents in Abbotsford-Mission. That hospital's emergency room, she said Sunday, had closed again within 48 hours of her filming there and 72 times this year.Advance voting in Abbotsford-Mission opens September 18.

Conservatives accuse Findlay of ‘pandering’

Related Stories

BC Greens add a candidate to Abbotsford-Mission byelection

WATCH: Horses and swords on a Surrey beach prompt bylaw questions

UPDATED: Violent criminal accused of stabbing and injuring two Sikhs in Edmonton gurdwara attack hours after being released from prison

WATCH: Sikh man refuses to leave SkyTrain tracks at Vancouver airport