The old Liberal bench is circling Findlay’s by-election wagon

PENTICTON — Hours after Premier David Eby set September 26 as voting day in Abbotsford-Mission, a veteran BC politics reporter posted that three familiar Fraser Valley and "free-enterprise" names were lighting up the phones..“Mike De Jong. Mike Bernier. Randy Hawes,” Jas Johal wrote Saturday. “But the real problem belongs to KLF. Run and lose and she’s finished. Sit it out and she’s a leader who wouldn’t face voters.”None of the three has said they are running and Western Standard has not independently confirmed the calls. Findlay was acclaimed as the Conservative candidate on August 25.As for Johal's second point, a loss on September 26 would hit Findlay hard..Findlay, 71, is a former Harper-era federal cabinet minister and a two-time Conservative MP, most recently for South Surrey—White Rock until 2025. She won the provincial leadership on May 30 with 51% of the points against Caroline Elliott and has led the party from outside the legislature ever since.Findlay's tenure as leader hasn't been without controversy.Six sitting MLAs have left her since August 14 — Peter Milobar, Ian Paton, Rosalyn Bird, Teresa Wat, Brennan Day and Bruce Banman — after Gasper gave up the Abbotsford-Mission seat so Findlay could run. Banman called her “unelectable” and said the tent was getting smaller.That's a qualitative and subject statement. But the numbers and seats themselves don't lie. The sitting caucus has gone from 44, dating back to when the BC Conservatives almost narrowly defeated the BC NDP in the 2024 provincial election, to the low 30s.Some of those defections occurred under former leader John Rustad, but the exodus under Findlay has been even worse. A leader who accepted a vacancy, took the nomination, and then lost a riding the party held 55–45 twenty-two months ago would give every remaining MLA a public reason to walk, making this a make-or-break by-election for Findlay and her team..Former agriculture minister and former Mission mayor Pam Alexis will almost certainly be Findlay's main challenger. It will be her third time carrying the BC NDP banner with a record of one win (2020) and one loss (2024).“It’s tough out there right now, and families in Abbotsford and Mission need an MLA and a government that’s looking out for them,” Alexis said in a statement. “David Eby and the B.C. NDP are strengthening health care by hiring doctors and nurses, bringing down housing costs, and creating good-paying jobs. Meanwhile, the B.C. Conservatives are focusing on culture wars over the things that matter most.”Premier Eby posted the same afternoon that Alexis is “deeply committed to her community.” .Gasper beat Alexis handily 13,523 to 10,894 in October 2024 — 55.38% to 44.62%, representing a four-digit vote gap.Alexis is a Victoria-born teacher who settled in Mission in 1996 after teaching English in Japan and Texas. She first made a name for herself in politics as a school trustee before taking the mayor’s chair from Randy Hawes (more on him later) in 2018.She was elected to the legislature in 2020 and was appointed Minister of Agriculture — a posting later criticized by newly Independent MLA Ian Paton on account of her having "never farmed."Another side-plot is already in motion, according to Johal..“De Jong’s story oozes poetic justice,” he wrote. “30 yrs in the legislature, finance minister, and the federal Conservatives told him in three lines he wasn’t qualified. Then acclaimed a 24 year old. KLF was tight with Poilievre and Byrne through all of it.”In March 2025, after a year of signing up members for Abbotsford—South Langley, de Jong received what he described as a three-line note: your application is declined; thanks for your interest; you're not qualified. The local association had recommended him but the federal Conservatives in Ottawa overrode it anyway. Sukhman Gill, then a blueberry farmer in his mid-20s, whom the local committee had rejected, took the nomination instead. Outgoing Conservative MP Ed Fast blamed “faceless party officials" for the decision.He also belongs on a shorter list than most of the old Liberal bench. In November 2021, as Opposition critic and a former attorney general, de Jong was one of the few MLAs to press then-attorney general David Eby on Bill 29, the amendment that wrote section 8.1 into the Interpretation Act. That clause tells every statutory decision-maker and every court that “every Act and regulation must be construed as being consistent with the Declaration” — the 2019 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, or DRIPA, which had passed the House unanimously. De Jong asked what the new “must” would do to a decision-maker applying the public interest. Eby did not answer on the record. The government then cut off debate and passed the bill the same afternoon. Four years later the courts began citing both statutes, and repeal became a top-line fight in the Conservative leadership. All five candidates still standing on May 30 — Findlay, Caroline Elliott, Iain Black, Yuri Fulmer and Peter Milobar — promised to scrap the DRIPA..And then there's Mike Bernier and the open question of whether he and CentreBC will run a candidate in the by-election.CentreBC named him leader on July 18, succeeding founding leader Karin Kirkpatrick. He was MLA for Peace River South from 2013 to 2024, education minister under Clark from 2015 to 2017, and mayor of Dawson Creek before that. He spent 20 years in the natural-gas patch. In 2024 he ran as an Independent after BC United collapsed and lost to Conservative Larry Neufeld, 24.56% to 69.84%.Conservative members in the Fraser Valley have not forgotten his education file. Bernier’s ministry brought SOGI 123 into public schools. Findlay’s Conservatives have pledged to take it out. He lives in Dawson Creek. A run in Abbotsford-Mission would put a Peace River resident against a local NDP former mayor, from farther away than Findlay’s South Surrey address.Kirkpatrick introduced him in July as the man to offer “a socially progressive, fiscally responsible alternative to the tired NDP government and the hard-right BC Conservatives.” Bernier has said he is already taking calls from former Liberals and from people leaving both current caucuses. He has not said one of those calls was about September 26..Randy Hawes needs no introduction here. He was Mission mayor twice, the first MLA for Abbotsford-Mission when the seat was created in 2009, and Gordon Campbell’s mining minister. He came back as president of Gasper’s riding association, then quit the party on August 24 after Gasper stepped aside..He called Findlay’s seat-ask “very wrong,” noted she had not asked her husband — Surrey South MLA Brent Chapman — to move, and said he would work to keep her from becoming his MLA. He hoped a centre vehicle would appear. Among Johal’s three names, Hawes is the only one on record about this race. He has not filed papers.Peter Milobar, who left Findlay’s caucus on August 14 and has talked about building a new party with Ian Paton, told The Canadian Press their party-in-the-making is “highly unlikely” to have a candidate ready on short notice..As noted by veteran reporter Bob Mackin in a Saturday afternoon X reply, a major area of interest for potential voters in the Abbotsford-Mission riding will be healthcare..The Western Standard has been tracking the same pattern across the Interior. Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson flagged the 37th temporary closure this year at 100 Mile House District General while the province sat under a wildfire emergency. Nicola Valley Hospital in Merritt has been cycling the same 25-hour and overnight shutdowns since June — six interruptions by early August, with Mayor Mike Goetz counting Interior Health ER closures at one every few days and asking Ottawa to step in. Findlay’s remaining caucus meets in Richmond Monday morning. Six MLAs have left her since August 14. The by-election she asked for now has a date, an NDP name on the other side of the ballot, a hospital that will be dark on some of the campaign’s weekend nights, and three old Liberal-era names circling her wagon.Elections BC has not yet posted the nomination deadline. A 28-day writ leaves little room for anyone who is not already organized.

The old Liberal bench is circling Findlay’s by-election wagon

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