VANCOUVER — Sheldon Clare and Steve Kooner have dropped out of the BC Conservative leadership race.Nine contestants remain..Clare suspended his campaign Friday morning after finding that of the 250 nomination signatures he submitted with his application, a "critical number" were from people not currently registered with the party."I take full responsibility for that deficiency in my application," he said..Kooner announced his decision to withdraw from the race an hour later."I'm incredibly proud of the campaign we built; our message was positive, principled, and focused on delivering real results for members and communities across the province," he said. "Those ideas will continue to shape this race. Leadership is about building momentum and at this stage, the most effective way to advance our message is through partnership."Kooner noted that "in a large candidate field, I concluded that the responsible path forward is to support a candidate positioned to unite the party and win."He added that he's in discussions with other campaigns and "will be sharing more soon."Contestants left in the race include businessman Yuri Fulmer, MLAs Peter Milobar, Harman Bhangu, and Bruce Banman, political commentator Caroline Elliott, former Save-On-Foods president Darrell Jones, ex-MLA Iain Black, and former Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay.
