Monday March 10, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Three former BC Conservative MLAs are now sitting as Independents in the BC Legislative Assembly.
The trio is Dallas Brodie (Vancouver-Quilchena), Tara Armstrong (Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream) and Jordan Kealy (Peace River North).
They say they are looking at the possibility of forming their own political party. If that does come to pass, they would be the fourth party in the House.
It would also mean that the NDP’s slim majority (boosted by the NDP agreement with the two BC Green MLAs) would be in a safer position for achieving majority votes in the House, as the BC Conservatives now have three fewer MLAs.
How did this happen?
BC Conservative Leader John Rustad kicked out Brodie for remarks she made that were unacceptable to the standard of his party.
Brodie had made remarks mocking statements about the burial sites found at the former residential school site in Kamloops. She was rebuked by BC Conservative House Leader Á’a:líya Warbus and Finance Critic Peter Milobar (Kamloops Centre) for that comment.
Kealy last week said that the party has become “toxic,” saying it was “eating itself alive”. He left in support of Brodie and said the three of them will help anyone who wants to leave the BC Conservative Party.
Armstrong wrote that leader John Rustad has “abandoned the truth and his moral compass in a quest for power” .
Armstrong said: “I’m standing up for every one of my constituents and every British Columbian who is being sold out by David Eby and John Rustad.” She left in support of Brodie.
Armstrong states the obvious, which the NDP is fully aware of: “People are struggling to pay for the basic necessities of life in British Columbia. Our prosperity is strangled by taxes and red tape and now we face a tariff attack from the world’s two largest economies.”
Kealy told media that Rustad “doesn’t have the courage or the integrity to defeat the NDP or to fight for the people in my constituency.”
Monday morning protest:
Brodie, Armstrong and Kealy held a press conference about all this on front steps of BC Legislature this morning to make their views heard.
Dividing the big tent:
Rustad has been trying to manage the variant factions of the party since the first session of the 43 BC Parliament started mid-February, saying he would not be whipping votes.
He wants the Conservatives to be a big-tent party.
The NDP has sought to exploit that strategy through some of their motions, including one calling on MLAs to condemn US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
===== RELATED:
NEWS SECTIONS: BC CONSERVATIVES | BC NDP | 43rd BC PARLIAMENT