VANCOUVER — The Western Standard is reaching out to all candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, asking each the same question: “How do you intend to unite the divided caucus John Rustad was unable to?”It's already been an eventful campaign and occasionally jarring entry into BC politics for Findlay, with protesters attempting to hurl urine and feces at her — along with several other BC Conservative leadership candidates — during a recent “Restore the North” event at the University of British Columbia just days ago..Findlay shared her experience at UBC during an interview on Monday, maintaining a sense of humour despite the shock and disbelief over the students’ behaviour."We were kept in the parking lot for 20 minutes. Then we were kept down in some little back room where the mops are because they [the protestors] had human faeces and urine to throw at us,” Findlay recalled.“I cannot believe it, I cannot believe this is happening” she recalled thinking, as the protestors banged on the windows and doors.Findlay landed on a lighter tone when reflecting on her alma mater, however, joking she may downplay that part of her background going forward.“I think I’ll just say, yeah, I have those degrees, and maybe leave out where I got them,” Findlay said with a laugh.The protesters' resort to literal excrement throws up an apt, if grotesque, metaphor for the current state of British Columbia's unusual political ecosystem and the “toxic immaturity” that has seeped from campus radicals all the way into the Legislative Assembly.“I've never experienced anything like it,” said now-independent MLA Amelia Boultbee in her own phone interview with the Western Standard last weekend. “The walls are alive in the place,” Boultbee said while describing the animated atmosphere in the BC legislature.Boultbee’s own story — of leaving the BC Conservative caucus while under the leadership of Rustad before being called “mentally ill” by the former party leader —i s emblematic of the division within not only the House, but also the BC Conservative Party itself..Which brings us right back to that big question: how does Findlay plan to pull a divided group together?Findlay jumped in without hesitation, pointing to her years as chief opposition whip federally under Pierre Poilievre, handling a caucus three times bigger.“I'm uniquely qualified,” she said, noting her experience with the same pressures of dealing with a diverse group of people under one banner who agree on most things but diverge on others.“Sometimes things look more divided from the outside than they actually are. Until you're on the inside, in those confidential meetings, it's hard to see what's really going on,” she explained.“You need to create relationships with each and every caucus member,” Findlay said. “Know what their motivation is. Maybe someone's passionate about human trafficking, or men's mental health.”Ultimately, though, the key to unity comes from focusing on what everyone shares: “We all want to defeat this government because it's hurting our province—we love our province.”.That passion for the province shines through in her top personal priority for British Columbia: resolving the longstanding tensions between indigenous land claims and private property rights—a file she knows inside-and-out through a painful firsthand experience..As a young widow raising children in the 1990s, Findlay bought a leasehold home on Musqueam reserve land for affordability.What began as a practical choice unraveled when taxing authority shifted to the First Nation, triggering steep renewal disputes. Leaseholders offered around $8,800 annually and the Musqueam Indian Band demanded $36,000—"an impossible amount."The standoff led to lawsuits against about 150 families and Findlay, being a lawyer by training, stepped up as the instructing solicitor for the litigation group and the case climbed to the Supreme Court of Canada where leaseholders prevailed."The issue wasn't that they went after the title, it was that they sucked all the equity out," Findlay recalled.As Findlay explained, appraisers couldn't certify fair market values anymore, banks refused to refinance or mortgage, and homes became unsellable traps for many families.A different situation, but with the same results, is playing itself out in Richmond where a similar number of home and private property owners have seen the value of their home “plummet” in the wake of the Cowichan Tribes v. Canada BC Supreme Court decision last summer.Findlay’s experience managing discord or disagreement in political caucuses at the federal level, combined with her legal and personal experience as both a lawyer and homeowner during the Musqueam dispute, are the reasons she thinks she's the right fit to be the next leader of the BC Conservative Party.“This isn't an entry-level job,” she said bluntly. “We don't have time—working men and women in BC are being crushed.”
