‘Imploding before our eyes’: B.C. Conservatives face unprecedented exodus

[u/Elliottafc1]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/imploding-before-our-eyes-bc-conservatives-face-unprecedented-exodus/

[u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

When they chose their leader I was absolutely shocked. The party is completely oblivious to what public opinion is. I’m not surprised this is happening.

[u/Canadian_mk11 → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

She barely beat Elliott on the final ballot too. You'd think that would suggest to her to reach across the tent to ensure party unity...

...but instead she decided to double down on the culture war stuff, accuse a fellow party member of being a political enemy because of the race of his spouse, and now allegedly commit the crime of offering an inducement to a sitting MLA to surrender their seat.

It's surreal. Like speed-running how to not politics 101.

[u/bradeena → u/Canadian_mk11]

The clown show down south has emboldened these people. They think they can just ignore the rules like he does.

[u/DeHeiligeTomaat → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

And Poilievre celebrated Findlay's win, calling it a "big win against liberal lobbyists from out east". Essentially calling the runner up a Liberal, despite her publically supporting him.

He's so self-absorbed in his own bubble and looking at his own reflection he doesn't see his ship sinking behind him.

[u/flatulentbaboon → u/DeHeiligeTomaat]

Eh, it was more of a shot at Kory Teneycke who was running Caroline Elliott's campaign than an actual congratulations towards KLF. PP/CPC have been feuding with Kory/Ford for a while now.

[u/DeHeiligeTomaat → u/flatulentbaboon]

And that kind of childish bickering and cheap shots at people in his own party has done nothing to help him and makes him look even more like a poor leader.

[u/HOLEPUNCHYOUREYELIDS → u/DeHeiligeTomaat]

Dude can’t even lead his party, why would we expect him to be able to lead the entire country!?

[u/CanadianErk → u/flatulentbaboon]

Nonetheless something that second place finisher took personally. Her response was very damning.

[u/reddit_and_forget_um → u/DeHeiligeTomaat]

He is one for the history books.

A lesson in how blind lust for power can make you so incredibly blind. Just a joke at this point. 

[u/Koss424 → u/reddit_and_forget_um]

he will not even be mentioned in History Books.

[u/FootlooseFrankie → u/DeHeiligeTomaat]

Oh that's the kiss of death right there ;) .

[u/1baby2cats → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

They would have almost been guaranteed a victory if they voted a more moderate leader. Now the NDP look set for another term, despite all of Eby's gaffes

[u/MadScienti5t → u/1baby2cats]

Indeed… Eby appears to be the least worst option at this stage, with no good options in sight.

[u/TheAnswerIsBeans → u/MadScienti5t]

What’s wrong with Eby?

[u/YzermanNotYzerman → u/TheAnswerIsBeans]

Nothing really. He's fine. People falling for misinformation and thinking they're gonna lose their homes (literally never going to happen, but a shocking amount of people are falling for it)

[u/marshalofthemark → u/TheAnswerIsBeans]

Well, BC does have a deficit of over $10 billion, and just this week the government admitted they'd mixed up Canadian and US dollars in their spreadsheet and once corrected, the deficit is actually $292 million bigger.

Mind you, the Conservatives aren't exactly better, like in the 2024 election they didn't release their platform costing until just before election day and when they finally did, surprise! their promises would have made the deficit bigger!

I also think Eby has just not been very good at handling indigenous relations. I don't have a problem with his overall strategy of negotiating lots of treaties with First Nations ... But Eby's seemed almost embarrassed about the whole thing as though he was helpless about the whole thing. And often he says wishy-washy things that satisfy no one.

I think people would respect Eby a lot more if he just said "well guess what, our ancestors really screwed the pooch 150 years ago and illegally grabbed a bunch of land, and now the bill has come due, and the quickest way to solve all this once and for all is to settle as many claims as we can outside of court and commit to recognizing all the constitutional rights of indigenous peoples going forward."

Instead of this "well we support Land Back, but also we will repeal DRIPA, but actually we won't, or maybe we will, or maybe we'll just amend it, and actually we need more time to figure out what to do".

[u/Top_Baseball3739 → u/MadScienti5t]

The poopoo platter as it were.

[u/captainbling → u/1baby2cats]

Yeah it’s all quiet on DRIPA now. They successfully waited it out. For now at least.

[u/marshalofthemark → u/captainbling]

Also the Supreme Court is going to hear the Gitxaala case sometime in the next few months; by the time the next election rolls around in 2028, it's possible they'll have overturned or at least narrowed the ruling and then Eby has a lot less to worry about on the DRIPA front.

[u/CipherWeaver → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

If conservatives do not believe they can be elected democratically they will not reject conservativism, they will reject democracy.

[u/neksys → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

Respectfully, I think it is naive to think this culture war stuff is not important to a pretty big chunk of voters in BC.

Maybe not enough to form government, but the BC Conservatives came within a few hundred votes in a couple of ridings of forming a majority running basically the same culture war messaging as they are today under KLF.

I couldn't believe KLF won because she's unlikeable, not because her messaging was substantially different than Caroline Elliott (who spent LOTS of time of her own talking about SOGI, First Nations land claims, etc etc)

[u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260 → u/neksys]

I completely disagree. This culture war stuff does not play at all in BC. Sure, there some extreme right wingers when it comes to cultural issues, but the only reason the conservatives were competitive at all was because of all the Liberal voters who held their nose and voted for them because they could never vote NDP.

The second a centre right alternative emerges the BC conservatives will fade into the background.

[u/Longjumping-Ad8065 → u/neksys]

I think the only reason the Cons did so well in the last provincial election was because some many of their voters didn’t understand it was a provincial election and thought they were voting to fck Trudeau

[u/marshalofthemark → u/neksys]

I couldn't believe KLF won because she's unlikeable, not because her messaging was substantially different than Caroline Elliott (who spent LOTS of time of her own talking about SOGI, First Nations land claims, etc etc)

I think Findlay just had more "authenticity" there because she's a longtime social conservative (IIRC, she used to be a federal Liberal member but that was 30 years ago, before they got on board with LGBT rights), unlike Elliott who was okay running for the socially progressive BC Liberals/BC United and the only issue she really has strong opinions on is that First Nations governments currently have too much power.

[u/DromarX → u/neksys]

Eh, as a BC resident I would say that while yes there are pockets of voters that care about that culture war stuff they are a fringe minority. The rise of the BCCP was predicated on a few things imo:

First and foremost was the disastrous rebranding of the BC Liberals into the BC United (sounds like a Soccer club) which lead to a split of voters away from BC's long time centre-right alternative to the BCCP (which up to that point was a fringe party of conspiracy theorists and other wackjobs). The failed rebrand and subsequent backroom deal leader Kevin Falcon made with the BCCP to fold United and let their most promising candidates run under the BCCP banner consolidated the centre-right vote into this formerly fringe party that was now a big tent party for right-leaning voters of all stripes.

Second, there was incumbent fatigue playing into the vote. The NDP had been the governing party for 7 years by that point so it goes without saying there were voters who simply wanted a change and didn't really care what the alternative was.

Lastly, I would say low-information voters confusing provincial politics for federal politics and thought that they were giving Trudeau the middle finger by voting for the BCCP.

[u/motorcyclemech → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

Hmmm.....(looks at federal party)

[u/Caveofthewinds → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

The polls are basically neck and neck with the NDP at the moment. Surely you can recognize that at least 50% of British Columbians resonate with their message?

[u/tyuoplop → u/Caveofthewinds]

From talking to friends out west, it sounds like a bit of a CPC 2024 situation. Some parts of the BCCP message resonates with many BCers but large parts don’t. Many voters have been willing to overlook those bits they don’t like cause they are so sick of the current government. Ultimately it’s a question of if BCers hate Eby more or the culture war nonsense more

[u/Special_Purpose2903 → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

They rather run a crazy than win.

[u/PostMatureBaby → u/Ok_Woodpecker_7260]

Are there politicians that aren't oblivious to the general public? I think I saw one once a couple decades ago but it coulda been Milhouse

[u/Reeder90]

Never forget, this same party was less than 1000 votes from winning a majority government.

[u/Mad-Mad-Mad-Mad-Mike → u/Reeder90]

History will laugh at how much of an own-goal Trump's 51st state threats were. If he just kept his mouth shut, most of these maple maga wackjob parties would be in power right now.

Thank God Trump is a moron.

[u/RavenOfNod → u/Reeder90]

Absolutely terrifying how close a party of Facebook aunts and uncles came to running the province. 

Almost as terrifying as the number of people who voted thinking they were gonna get Trudeau out. Hopefully a perfect storm type event, but I am not hopeful for the future of this province.

[u/NeighbourNoNeighbor → u/RavenOfNod]

Yeah it was truly fucking terrifying. They were trying to rewrite textbooks to remove any kind of self-reflection, hit the dog whistles so hard they practically broke em, and paraded around with outright lies about SOGI that straight up inflamed a huge resurgence of outright bigotry.

That's before you even get into the actual controversies and ridiculously hateful things they've said.

[u/Joebranflakes]

The BC Conservative Party could be an actual contender if it wasn’t filled with a bunch of fringe crazies that are ideologically unpalatable to most voters. Look at the NDP who swung to the middle in order to delete the Liberal party. If the Conservatives just went Centre right, and put competent professionals in place as candidates, instead of whatever the heck they are doing now, they’d probably win the next election.

[u/LongRoadNorth → u/Joebranflakes]

This sums up most conservative parties in Canada...

[u/emuwar → u/LongRoadNorth]

Instead the Liberals are moving further right to pick up the progressive conservative votes

[u/LongRoadNorth → u/emuwar]

On some things yes. I'm still mixed on that. On one hand they're supposed to be more 'centre left' on the other I'm pretty far left so I would prefer the governing party be the same.

[u/Joebranflakes → u/LongRoadNorth]

I know right? Instead they doubled down on PP.

[u/CipherWeaver → u/Joebranflakes]

When the BC Liberals imploded the Cons were left scrambling for candidates to run in easy ridings. This led to a lot of people getting elected basically uncontested as long as they had a blue C by their name on the ballot. Their party is full of a looooot of weirdos right now.

[u/OwnBattle8805 → u/Joebranflakes]

Learned something new today: The Keyes Constant: about 1/4 of the population is batshit crazy and how a state deals with that portion of the population decides whether they’re a prosperous society or a failed state.

[u/Through_theShadows → u/Joebranflakes]

"The BC Conservative Party could be an actual contender if it wasn’t filled with a bunch of fringe crazies that are ideologically unpalatable to most voters."

No. They'd never be a contender. Due to the second part. I'm actually not even sure what you are trying to say here.

They would be contenders if they weren't all morons? Weird way to look at it.

[u/Kingbravelyheart]

It was game over after the audio of them admitting they going to steal everything from BC was released

[u/Wind_Best_1440 → u/Kingbravelyheart]

Yeah after that and the BCC leader reacting quickly to fire the guy proving that it wasn't AI and it was all true was pretty much an admission of guilt that the BCC were planning on stealing all the money from British Columbians.

At that point the MLA's started jumping ship. 7-8 in August alone, they went from 44 to 30 in just 2 years.

And its not even close to being over, there are a bunch of rumblings about more planning to jump ship especially since the ones who left are planning a new Center party. If they do it, thats game over for BCC.

[u/CtrlShiftAltDel → u/Wind_Best_1440]

I think a true center party in BC would absolutely decimate the NDP. As mentioned in here already, I feel there are a lot of center/center-left voters that are waiting for a viable alternative to the NDP that aren’t crazy maple MAGA losers like the BCC.

[u/sl33plessnites → u/CtrlShiftAltDel]

I think you are right. I think a lot of people are unhappy with the NDP right now but the BC Cons aren't it.. that's for sure. Too far out there.

[u/ChaosBerserker666 → u/Wind_Best_1440]

I would absolutely vote for a true centre party. I usually have fairly left wing views but fiscally the NDP and Eby have really messed up. PWD needs to be brought under control, and money needs to go into the health care system instead.

[u/rhionaeschna → u/ChaosBerserker666]

How exactly is PWD out of control? Care to share?

[u/matdex → u/ChaosBerserker666]

I think Eby got a bad hand. He had to fix all decades of BC Libs unfunded infrastructure like schools, hospitals, bridges. But at the same time faces economic headwinds.

DRIPA was a political disaster. The toxic drug crisis flip flop was overblown; the science supports harm reduction, the issue was they didn't fully fund the whole treatment process and the public outrage forced his hand.

Eby's intelligent, caring and a hell of a lot better than anything any other political parties are offering. He's just not a great political strategist.

[u/flatulentbaboon]

KLF is incompetent, an actual racist, and a separatist. It's not a coincidence that Albertan separatists keep finding their way into her party and landing key roles and that she has connections with the BC Prosperity Project.

[u/Wind_Best_1440]

Honestly, it's pretty hilarious just how bad the BCC is imploding. It's like watching some fall down the stairs and somehow materializing a shovel to step up on each stair down hitting themselves in between the eyes.

[u/matdex → u/Wind_Best_1440]

I actually guffawed reading this

[u/Acorbo22 → u/Wind_Best_1440]

Like that sideshow bob clip where he keeps stepping on the rakes.

[u/Quatre_Kat]

Gee, if only literally everyone saw this coming

[u/Doubleoh_11 → u/Quatre_Kat]

The Facebook crowd sure didn’t lol

[u/leavemealoneimpoor]

not surprising at all.

It was the BC Liberals (Conservative) and the BC Conservative Party (Crazy MAGA Party).

They worked an inside deal with the BC Liberal leader to terminate the party instantly ( it was instantly closed; no discussions among the members) to join forces to destory the NDP.

The plan almost worked. NDP won only by 1-2%.
It was just NDP vs the BC Conservative Party (Crazy MAGA Party).

Crazy Maga Party because they act exactly like how TRUMP and Republicans are doing. Spreading hate, fear mongering, fake promises and steal money from the Party donations.

They are breaking up now because the MAGA style isn't working well down south so it's defintiely will not work well in Canada. Especially when we are being threatened by TRUMP USA.

Recently, BC Conservative party was caught planning to steal the voters' money and funnel into their own private pocket.

Not surprising at all because MAGA people only spread lies and hate and grift. They can't do any other shits. They also care about their own pocket. not others.

[u/Islandman2021]

Elliott should have been the choice, not this fruitcake. 🤦🤦

[u/Wayves]

Regardless of what they say, believe, or promise, there is no way in hell I'd vote for a politician in their 70s.

65 years old is the absolute cut off for my vote for MLAs and MPs. Up for re-election at 70 and did a fantastic job previously? Sorry time to pass the reigns.

[u/No-Arrival633]

"Trump can crime without consequences, why can't we?"

[u/Infamous-Echo-2961]

They literally just have to NOT be a basket of deplorable weirdos.

Have some action plans for things affecting British Columbians and stay out of identity politics. Harp on Eby giving away crown and public land to the bands, and talk about the economy and improving ours lives.

But that is obviously too hard.

[u/scanthethread2]

Glad at least one racist is facing consequences

[u/CrucialObservations]

I have never voted conservative, but they definitely chose the wrong person to head the party. I thought they would have picked Caroline Elliott; she was the obvious choice, to me anyway.

[u/turtlefan32]

Ward Stamer was on CBC radio confirming his support of this right wing racist view. 

[u/grizzlybearcanada469]

Keep her as leader

[u/Quiet-Nothing7556]

Remember, whenever a conservative party falls apart it's always really the fault of voters for not getting on program.

[u/not_essential]

The only difference between BC and Alberta is that in AB the cons are the gov't.

[u/Powerful_Exit6540]

Who may have thought?

[u/William_Shat_On_Her]

I hope it's a violent spectacular explosion

[u/dethrayy]

Yo lol

[u/n1cenurse]

Old cankles needs a nursing home

[u/Big_Jacket_27]

Pttth.. they're all ex-Liberals. No real conservatives in the bunch. Buckle in for another 4 years of the NDP

[u/switchingcreative]

Years of trashing Trudeau. Photo ops with Freedom Convoy. Blowing a 25 point lead. Lost in his riding after 15 years. Now living in Alberta off the taxpayers of Canada. Sounds pretty solid.

[u/PictureIll3191 → u/switchingcreative]

Their article is about the BC Cons, not the federal cons.

[u/Old_news123456]

PP cannot win a General election. He's a reformist, not a true conservative. 

Most Canadians are centered. Maybe leaning a certain direction, but many like myself are a swing voters. I could vote conservative, given the right candidate. That candidate isn't ever going to be PP. 

PP literally told his riding FULL of government workers that he was going to cut their jobs. That was a big part of his campaign. Personally, if I have a very expensive mortgage to pay I'm not voting for the guy who's planning to make me unemployed and homeless . It's basic kitchen table economics. That's a large part of why he lost. He's still around because some schmuck gave up his riding to PP. 

Canadians need a strong leader for the conservative party. Eventually, like all governments Carney will have enough scandals to anger the voters and I'd rather have a good plan B for PM...not another Harper vs Trudeau of 2016, or of PP vs JT scenario We just avoided . 

[u/tyuoplop → u/Old_news123456]

Going to go ahead and guess you didn’t read the article as it’s about the provincial conservatives in BC not the federal party…

[u/celestial__discharge → u/tyuoplop]

He just had to get his daily Pierre hatepost out

[u/PictureIll3191 → u/Old_news123456]

Then the guy who beat PP in his riding decided to cut government jobs anyways lol. At least Pierre is honest

[u/MediumWall]

Good

[u/Thereal_Stormm006]

Red Tories but hurt they lost the leadership race leave the party. Good. Less liberal lite snakes to deal with.

[u/bobfrombob → u/Thereal_Stormm006]

The Stockwell Day approach