From left: BC Conservative leadership candidates Peter Milobar, Iain Black, Yuri Fulmer, Caroline Elliott and Kerry-Lynne Findlay after a debate at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Vancouver on April 24.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
The Conservative Party of British Columbia will announce its new leader this weekend, offering a first glimpse of the vision that will carry forward a party defined as much by its rapid rise as by its internal divisions.
Seven days of voting will conclude Saturday, with election results to be announced at a ceremony in Vancouver. The winner will be decided by ranked ballot and will replace Trevor Halford, who has served as interim leader since John Rustad’s Dec. 4 resignation last year.
The contest will determine not only who will lead B.C.’s Official Opposition, but will shape what conservatism in the province will look like at a time when frustration with the governing NDP has created opportunities on the political right.
“I think what the battle is shaping up to be, in part, is a definition of what it means to be a conservative at this time in B.C.,” said Hamish Telford, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley.
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“They’re either going to end up with a candidate who is pragmatic about forming a government or a candidate who’s more ideological, which might prevent them from forming government.”
The five remaining candidates, whittled down from a peak of 11, share many of the same priorities, including repealing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, expanding resource development, and ending sexual orientation and gender identity education and policies in schools.
But they also bring sharply different political experience, leadership styles and ideas about the very identity of the BC Conservative brand.
Iain Black is a former BC Liberal cabinet minister in Gordon Campbell’s government who left politics to become president and chief executive of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. He returned to politics with an unsuccessful run for the Conservative Party of Canada in last spring’s federal election. He’s focused his leadership campaign on the economy, including a pledge to cut income tax by 20 per cent.
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Caroline Elliott is a political commentator, former political staffer and former vice-president of BC United, the name the BC Liberals gave themselves in 2023 in an effort to rebrand after 16 years in government.
Ms. Elliott has positioned herself as an outsider whose leadership skills make up for a lack of elected experience. Seen as an early front-runner, Ms. Elliott received the endorsement of Mr. Campbell earlier this month.
Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a lawyer and former minister of national revenue under then-prime-minister Stephen Harper, points to her legal background and her role leading a successful fight on behalf of Musqueam Indian Band leaseholders as experience that would help her navigate B.C.’s Aboriginal title issues. Business in Vancouver reported on May 20 that Ms. Findlay is being investigated by Elections Canada over expenses relating to her unsuccessful 2025 federal re-election campaign. Ms. Findlay said she had not received notification of an investigation.
Peter Milobar, a current Conservative MLA who served three terms as Kamloops mayor and two on council, touts his experience and pragmatism, presenting himself as a steady-hand alternative to those more focused on culture war issues. As a former finance critic, he says he has the established relationships with business and First Nations leaders needed to move the province forward.
Australian-born businessman Yuri Fulmer ran as the BC Conservative candidate in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky in 2024, losing to the Greens’ Jeremy Valeriote. He cut a deal with OneBC leader Dallas Brodie, agreeing that she would not run candidates in 88 of 93 ridings in exchange for the Conservatives not running candidates in five, should he become leader. (Ms. Brodie was originally elected as a Conservative MLA, but was kicked out of that caucus in part due to her views on Indigenous relations.)
Prof. Telford, the associate professor of political science, said early leads by Mr. Milobar and Ms. Elliott appear to have fallen away, with no clear front-runner at the end of the race.
BC Conservative leadership candidates take part in a debate at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
Whomever wins, he says, will need to court the moderate conservatives who don’t want to vote for the NDP but are skeptical of the more polarizing views held by some party members, such as vaccine and climate skepticism, or residential school denialism.
“I think the fundamental question is: Do they have more to win by cutting loose that far right fringe than holding on to them?” he said.
Mike McDonald, co-host of the public affairs podcast Hotel Pacifico and former chief of staff to then-premier Christy Clark, said he believes Ms. Elliott, Mr. Black and Ms. Findlay are seen as the most viable contenders at this stage of the race, but that people may be underestimating Mr. Milobar and Mr. Fulmer.
Like Prof. Telford, Mr. McDonald said courting the right risks losing the middle, and that the Conservatives will need to decide who no longer fits the party.
“In the past, the Socreds [Social Credit Party] and BC Liberals have united people around the economy, around their approach to resource development, taxes and those types of bread and butter issues,” he said. “I think trying to unite the Conservatives around social issues would be more challenging.”
Should the NDP sense weakness in the new leader’s ability to unite the party, the province may see an election sooner than later, Mr. McDonald added.
A Research Co. poll released April 30 found no clear front-runner, with the candidates separated by just five points on favourability: Ms. Elliott at 19 per cent, Ms. Findlay at 18 per cent, Mr. Milobar at 17 per cent. Mr. Fulmer at 15 per cent and Mr. Black at 14.
The same poll found that 30 per cent of respondents identified housing, homelessness and poverty as the most important issue facing the province, followed by the economy and jobs (26 per cent), health care (23 per cent) and crime and safety (7 per cent).
The online survey of 802 adults in B.C. was conducted April 16 to 18 and the data were statistically weighted according to Canadian censure figures for age, gender and region in the province. The Globe and Mail does not report a margin of error for online polls.
The party said in April that it had signed up 42,000 members, up from 7,000 at the start of the campaign. However, only 26,000 completed a verification process to become eligible voters by the May 20 deadline. Late Thursday, executive director Angelo Isidorou said 25,000 members had voted.