PENTICTON — Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s Conservative Party of BC caucus, or what's left of it anyway, was scheduled to sit down in Richmond on Monday, the first full meeting since six MLAs walked out in two weeks. That meeting has now been cancelled according to CKNW's Jas Johal..Findlay told CBC News on Friday the session would be “unifying,” because she is “ready to go in there very honestly and openly.”A former BC Conservative, who asked not to be named, was unconvinced the meeting would even happen.“When John Rustad was the leader, he would always cancel or postpone these meetings, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened here,” the former member said.Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Scott McInnis, the official opposition’s Indigenous Relations critic, was still planning to be there as of Friday night. He told the Western Standard on Friday the meeting is “much needed.”“We have a very important meeting coming up, which I think a lot of us will finally have the opportunity to just have an open and transparent discussion with each other,” McInnis said. “Monday’s meeting will be a good chance to just recalibrate ourselves and see where we’re going heading into the fall session.”It remains unclear why the caucus meeting was cancelled on Sunday. The BC Conservatives have yet to make a public statement on the matter as of publication..The Conservative Party of BC won 44 seats in the 2024 BC provincial election, falling just 3 seats short of a majority in the 93-seat legislature.Findlay took over as leader of the party on May 30 of this year, following the tumultuous removal of former leader John Rustad who was deemed "professionally incapacitated" by the BC Conservative's board of directors last December.After several departures under Rustad's leadership and six more just last week, the BC Conservative seat-count is down to 31.Reann Gasper vacated her seat August 22 so Findlay could run in a by-election to potentially get a seat of her own. Premier David Eby dropped the writ on that by-election on Saturday, two days ahead of Findlay's caucus meeting in Richmond.The other six BC Conservatives who left did so for their own reasons.Delta South MLA Ian Paton walked August 24. He later told CHEK that chief of staff Chris Delaney twice offered him a paid agriculture-advisor job, matching an MLA’s salary, if he gave up the seat. Findlay denied a job-for-seat bargain..Prince George-Valemount MLA Rosalyn Bird walked August 25. She said Findlay yelled at her, called her “selfish” and hung up after she refused to vacate the riding..Richmond-Bridgeport MLA Teresa Wat walked the morning of August 26. She said a leaked leadership-campaign chat had branded her “CCP,” that Findlay did not deny it, and that a promised apology never came..Courtenay-Comox MLA Brennan Day walked that same afternoon and is sitting as what he calls an Independent Conservative. His letter said he had lost confidence in Findlay’s “judgment, conduct, ethical standards and those she has chosen to surround herself with.”.Abbotsford South MLA Bruce Banman walked the next day on August 27. He called Findlay “unelectable,” said the tent was “getting smaller, not larger,” and invited other MLAs, “regardless of political affiliation,” to sit Independent with him..Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar was the first out, on August 14. He said his values no longer aligned with Findlay’s “new direction.”.McInnis backed Milobar in the leadership race. Asked Friday whether anything since the change in leadership had clashed with his own values — the Dallas Brodie dinner, the debate remarks, the week of paper cuts Milobar would not pin on one event — he would not name anything specific but also didn't say “no.”Instead, he offered an answer calling for pragmatism over personal differences..“Columbia River-Revelstoke is not a large Conservative riding,” he said. “People here expect issues-driven leadership above anything else.” For every leader he has had, “I have constituents that are concerned, but I think that’s normal politics.” He is still a Conservative. He does not have a plan to leave.He won the seat by 670 votes, 8,768 to 8,098 over New Democrat Andrea Dunlop.Asked whether some further number of walkouts would make him reconsider, he said no. He did stress, however, that a week of losses is “very concerning” and has to be addressed “as a caucus openly.”“I don’t think there’ll be any appetite for glossing over those issues, and I’m a big proponent of open communication… for all of us, including the leader.”He did not say he has lost confidence in her. He wants “some structure and some cohesiveness” back, and he has “little patience for extended regression.”.“We really could do no wrong in the spring,” he said. “The NDP had the bus fired up, ready to leave Victoria. Their shots at us were bouncing right off us. I want to get back to that place."Monday's caucus meeting was not a leadership review — not formally, anyway. No one on the public record has called it one. It was set to be the first time the people still left in the room would have a say, in front of the leader, on whether the week of exits was a purge of the unwilling or a warning of things to come.Findlay had already told CBC she was going into Monday's planned meeting “very honestly and openly.” McInnis had been looking forward to listening to “all sides of the discussion.” If Johal's Sunday morning X post is off the mark, or there's a change of mind on the matter, and the Richmond meeting does go ahead, the real test is whether anyone else walks out of it — and if so, how many people follow.
