Elected leader of the B.C. Conservative Party Kerry-Lynne Findlay speaks during leadership election night in Vancouver on Saturday.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
Someone tuning in to the victory address by new B.C. Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay could have been forgiven if they thought they’d somehow stumbled across a speech being given by a U.S. Republican from Texas.
“In our national anthem, we cry out to God to make our land glorious and free,” Ms. Findlay told the gathering of Conservative party faithful on Saturday. “Faith, family and freedom. That’s what it’s all about. God bless British Columbia and God bless all of you.”
There were also echoes in it of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. But in B.C., there hasn’t been a major political figure since Social Credit premier Bill Vander Zalm in the 1980s, who made faith and social conservatism a centrepiece of his platform.
New B.C. Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay promises to unite party after identity crisis
And he ended up destroying his party.
It’s far too early to say what Ms. Findlay’s election will mean for the Conservatives. Her victory over four challengers came as a surprise to some. She prevailed over two more centrist, establishment candidates, in Iain Black and Peter Milobar, who some thought offered the best chance for the party to present a ready-to-govern-responsibly image. Yuri Fulmer, meantime, was a relative unknown who never had a chance.
The candidate many assumed would emerge triumphant was Caroline Elliott, a 39-year-old academic and conservative pundit many viewed as a fresh voice who could sell a more modern, progressive version of the party. Others, however, were not convinced and considered her a conservative-of-convenience whose ideological proclivities were rooted in liberalism. In an April editorial, the National Post said Ms. Elliott represented a “beacon of hope” for B.C. She out-fundraised her competitors by a wide margin but was heavily criticized for bringing in conservative strategists from outside B.C. to run her campaign, including Kory Teneycke, who ran Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s last election campaign.
In the end, the influential right-wing of the party was more comfortable with Ms. Findlay at the helm.
And NDP Premier David Eby and his party couldn’t be more thrilled, I’m sure.
Elections in B.C. have always been a fight for the middle. For years, the NDP had a hard-core 30 to 35 per cent of voters but couldn’t get to a threshold high enough to allow the party to form government. (Centrist voters were leery of the left). There was a brief three-year term in power in the 1970s for the NDP but it took the destruction of Social Credit in 1991 to give the New Democrats a decade-long run in government.
The B.C. Liberals – a coalition of liberals and conservatives – ruled from 2001 to 2017 until the NDP ascended again under the populist John Horgan who would give way to Mr. Eby.
That spelled the end, practically speaking, of the B.C. Liberals, who rebranded under the banner B.C. United. That didn’t go well, allowing the previously moribund Conservatives, under John Rustad’s leadership, to go from nothing in the polls to almost winning the last election.
Mr. Rustad was deposed as leader in December amid internal hostilities. Conflicting political agendas inside caucus were fuelled by his listless, antagonistic leadership style.
Now it will be Ms. Findlay’s job to fix all that.
She will have to unite her caucus around a vision which, based on her leadership campaign rhetoric, is decidedly rooted in the right-wing, hard-core base of the party. She seems most comfortable when talking about rooting out “woke ideology” in schools and ending the tyranny of “eastern and global elites” and “our own Constitution.”
Ms. Findlay speaks during a debate at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference in April.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
Ms. Findlay finds ways to sprinkle the word “freedom” into almost any sentence. If she soon promises to bring in new B.C. license plates that say “B.C. – strong and free” we’ll know she’s playing from Ms. Smith’s UCP playbook.
But the new Conservative leader is also an experienced politician. She was former prime minister Stephen Harper’s revenue minister and government whip for current federal leader, Pierre Poilievre.
She knows she has a glorious opportunity in B.C. to win the next election against a deeply unpopular NDP Premier and government.
If she decides to placate the culture warriors in her caucus and party then she will fail. If she makes declaring war on Indigenous rights a priority she will scare off many voters. She and her husband, Conservative MLA Brent Chapman, have been associated with remarks considered racist. In a region as multiculturally rich as Greater Vancouver, where provincial elections are won and lost, that is not a great label to wear. She will have to convince voters she represents everyone, including non-believers living in the most non-religious province in the country.
Ms. Findlay represents the most serious challenge Mr. Eby has faced as Premier. She may also represent the lifeline he was waiting for.