Friday September 18, 2026 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 5:22 pm PT | Updated September 19, 2026]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Three more BC Conservative MLAs have left that party, leaving the BC Conservatives with 25 MLAs in the BC Legislative Assembly.
Those most recently departed MLAs are Trevor Halford (Surrey-White Rock), Claire Rattée (Skeena), and John Rustad (Nechako Lakes — they are no longer affiliated with the B.C. Conservative Party. They were reportedly asked by party leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay to leave the party.
Halford was the BC Conservative interim leader from last fall up until Kerry-Lynne Findlay was chosen by party members as their new leader on May 30 of this year. Before that, John Rustad was the BC Conservative party leader who led that party to nearly toppling the BC NDP government in the October 2024 provincial election (44 seats were won at that time).
Now 12 BC Conservative MLAs have left that party, and now 10 BC Conservative MLAs have asked Findlay to resign.
CentreBC grows into Centre-Right BC:
Meanwhile, former BC Conservative MLAs Peter Milobar (Kamloops-North Thompson) and Ian Paton (Delta South) — who in August announced they would form their own party — have instead now joined the Centre BC party (now possibly being renamed Centre-Right BC).
That solidifies CentreBC as BC’s second conservative party.
Milobar and Paton had been waiting for name confirmation from Elections BC. But now with the likely snap election call coming in even a few days from now, having a party name already in place is expedient if not essential for the growing number of MLAs who have aligned with Milobar and Paton and their centre-right mission.
For now, the seats-by-party listing of the BC Legislative Assembly does not show the new CentreBC party, with the MLAs who are essentially in limbo listed as Independents — 17 of them.
There are also two vacant seats — Vancouver-Strathcona (where the MLA Joan Phillip recently passed away) and Abbotsford-Mission (where there is still currently an active by-election set for September 26 where Kerry-Lynne Findlay is running to win a seat, against former NDP cabinet minister Pam Alexis).
Snap election:
Today Premier Eby repeated several times in a press conference at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Vancouver that he has “no announcement today” as to calling a snap provincial election.
But apparently it was a hot topic during the five-day UBCM convention.
“This would be an expensive move that no one in B.C. wants,” said BC Greens Leader Emily Lowan in a party statement this afternoon.
From the NDP’s perspective there may not be any choice but to call a snap election, the goal being to hold onto if not increase the NDP majority in the BC Legislative Assembly (which is currently slim by one MLA, as Eby articulated today in his press conference at UBCM).
===== RELATED:
- Premier Eby may call a snap election in BC (September 18, 2026)
- BC Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay at UBCM (September 17, 2026)
- Five candidates in Abbotsford-Mission provincial by-election (September 5, 2026)
- Five former BC Conservative MLAs form new party (September 4, 2026)
- More MLAs leave BC Conservatives, Milobar & Paton starting new party (August 27, 2026)