Tuesday October 21, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
BC Conservative MLA Amelia Boultbee (Penticton-Summerland) has resigned from the BC Liberal caucus and will sit as an Independent MLA.
She announced this news on Monday. Reportedly BC Conservative Leader John Rustad opened the door for her to leave after suggesting she was unable to handle the job of MLA. Rustad reportedly said that Boultbee was leaking information from caucus.
Boultbee is the fifth MLA to depart from the BC Conservative ranks. She told media outside the legislature building yesterday that she had meanwhile called on Rustad to resign.
The other four departed MLAs who ran in the October 2024 election as BC Conservatives are:
- Dallas Brodie (Vancouver-Quilchena) and Tara Armstrong (Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream) — both of whom went on to form their own OneBC party;
- Jordan Kealy (Peace River North) who left at the same time as Brodie and Armstrong earlier this year but sits an an Independent; and
- Elenore Sturko (Surrey-Cloverdale) who has had a high profile for first leaving the former BC Liberal Party and now the BC Conservatives as well as being outspoken on the key issue of public safety.
Each of the five departed MLAs (four of whhom are women) seem to have strident thoughts of their own — not unusual or unexpected for people who seek success in politics.
But the now five departed may be good examples of people who jumped onto the BC Conservative bandwagon in 2024 when Rustad was rallying as many people as he could to run for the resurrected BC Conservative Party — without necessarily having full policy alignment with the party that Rustad was building.
Rustad’s aim was to topple the BC NDP in the October 2024 provincial election and he almost accomplished that, seeing the NDP return with a seat count of 47 for the slimmest possible majority in a 93-seat House.
But it takes more than wanting to topple the ‘enemy’ than by just sheer force of numbers. Now Rustad’s caucus tally is diminished — down to 39 now from the starting point of 44. This only strengthens the stability of Premier David Eby’s NDP government in the Legislative Assembly, though the government side of the House must still muster up every one of their MLAs to vote in support of NDP legislation in order to be assured of legislation being passed.
Party standings:
The BC Conservatives are still the Official Opposition. The third party is the BC Greens with two MLAs (with whom the NDP have an agreement to advance shared priorities). The fourth party is OneBC with two MLAs. There are now three MLAs sitting as Independent.
Rustad carries on:
Last month Rustad survived a leadership review (on September 22) with 71% of caucus in support (78 of 93 ridings, though only about 15% of party members voted). Shortly after that he kicked Sturko out of caucus.
===== RELATED:
NEWS SECTIONS: 43rd PARLIAMENT OF BC | BC CONSERVATIVES | ONEBC