EXCLUSIVE: Caucus faction tells Findlay to resign Saturday night or husband tape drops

PENTICTON — Elements of the Conservative Party of BC caucus have told leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay to resign Saturday evening, two sources said, and have threatened to release a recording of her husband if she refuses.The sources, speaking separately, described the file as Chapman addressing someone in a "threatening manner." One said the call was framed as a reaction to the pressure on Findlay as party leader. Chapman is Findlay's husband and the sitting Conservative MLA for Surrey South.The Western Standard has not obtained the recording and has not independently authenticated it. The paper is not naming the MLAs the sources identified as making the threat. Both accounts named at least one sitting member. The names did not match, and the identities have not been confirmed..Findlay had not posted a resignation by Saturday afternoon. As recently as Thursday, at the Union of BC Municipalities convention, she had said she was staying.."I'm not going anywhere," she said from the podium, hours after an emergency caucus in a Vancouver office tower where sitting MLAs asked her to quit. CBC's Katie DeRosa posted that clip. CHEK's Rob Shaw, CTV's Robert Buffam and Global's Jordan Armstrong each reported that two unnamed sitting MLAs put the resignation ask to her Wednesday night. She refused.The Western Standard was the first outlet to identify and name those two MLAs as Skeena MLA Claire Rattée and Nechako Lake MLA John Rustad.Rattée later named herself as one of those two..Thursday, the Western Standard first reported Surrey-White Rock MLA Trevor Halford working the phones, with Kootenay-Rockies MLA Pete Davis, for a letter asking Findlay to resign. Four sources put 11 names on it by evening, short of a 15-MLA target that would have been more than half of the 28 still listed before Friday. Rattée put the public figure at "at least ten" and said she had signed.Findlay had Halford, Rattée and Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad struck from the official Conservative caucus. The Office of the Clerk recorded the three as "no longer affiliated" after Maahs sent word.."Effective immediately, Trevor Halford, Claire Rattée, and John Rustad will no longer serve as members of the Conservative Party of British Columbia Caucus," Findlay wrote Friday afternoon. "There's no room for internal power struggles or vanity projects." The Assembly list now shows 25 sitting Conservatives, not counting vacant Abbotsford-Mission..The two sources, plus a third, said there are plans to put a different leader in if Findlay steps down. The names they offered, again, did not match. Some of those named included Halford — the same figure sources described Thursday as the intended interim if a snap writ dropped — and Rustad.Rustad would be an almost "comedic choice" as one source said as he was the first leader of the modern Conservative Party of BC, but was removed after the board certified him "professionally incapacitated" on December 3, 2025.He told CBC on Friday that Findlay texted him Thursday night to say he was out, texted again about 15 minutes later and took it back, then Friday morning Maahs informed the Clerk. He also said he will speak in Victoria Monday..A signed caucus letter still does not remove a leader no matter how many signatures are attached to it.Article 11.02 of the party's March 1, 2025 constitution requires resignation, death, incapacitation, or a failed membership review. .Findlay won the extra-parliamentary leadership May 30, 51% to 49% over Caroline Elliott on the fourth ballot. She had no legislature seat and still does not. Reann Gasper resigned Abbotsford-Mission August 22 so Findlay could run. Premier David Eby called the byelection August 29. Voting day is Saturday, September 26. Advance voting opened Friday and runs through Wednesday. A leadership resignation would not, by itself, take her name off a ballot already in use at advance polls. If Eby drops the writ between now and September 26, however, it would cancel the byelection even if it is already in progress.Nine sitting Conservatives walked out on Findlay between August 14 and September 2. Friday's three names were ejected from the party, bringing the total number of seats lost to 12 as of Saturday evening.Neither Findlay nor Chapman have confirmed by 4:02 p.m. PDT whether rumours of an alleged blackmail campaign are true, or whether any such recording exists.This is a developing story.

EXCLUSIVE: Caucus faction tells Findlay to resign Saturday night or husband tape drops

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