BURST
At least two B.C. Conservative MLAs say there has been little to no direct communication from their new leader in the two months since Kerry-Lynne Findlay was elected to lead the party out of a year-and-a-half of turmoil.
Some Tory MLAs had felt cautiously optimistic after their initial caucus meeting with Findlay in Penticton on May 31.
Findlay won the leadership with 51 per cent of the vote over political commentator and academic Caroline Elliott at the end of the fourth round of voting, with Elliott receiving 49 per cent.
Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar, former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Iain Black and businessman Yuri Fulmer had been eliminated in earlier rounds.
Multiple sources told Postmedia News that initial meetings between Findlay and members of caucus were mostly positive but two MLAs said there has been little direct communication with her in the two months since.
Instead, they say that most of the communication has been run through her senior staff, with one saying that there has been little effort to convey an overarching strategy that caucus can share with constituents.
In that time, numerous staffers have resigned or been fired due to not being deemed conservative enough, according to multiple sources, and interim leader Trevor Halford and House Leader Á’a:líya Warbus have been replaced by Chilliwack North MLA Heather Maahs and Prince George-North Cariboo MLA Sheldon Clare.
Maahs, who will serve as party leader in the legislature until Findlay can win a seat, and Clare, who will serve as the new House leader, both supported Findlay during the leadership race.
Findlay has also assembled her own team in the Conservative communication offices of the legislature, bringing in former B.C. Unity Party leader Chris Delaney as her chief of staff, former Juno News editor Cosmin Dzsurdzsa as her communications director and former Republican Party of Alberta executive director Apollo Chung as director of operations.
With the new team in place, communications messaging has changed, with multiple sources confirming the authenticity of a document posted online by CKNW radio host and former B.C. Liberal MLA Jas Johal. The document is a response to a Canadian Press story last week that quoted former B.C. Liberal premier Christy Clark calling Findlay “kooky” and stating that she “cannot win an election.”
It urged caucus members to talk up party unity but also pushes the message that Clark is an NDP proxy and that she and the governing party are “desperate and stooping to schoolyard name-calling, which has corrupted political conversation in our province.”
The party didn’t respond to a request for comment on the directive, instead asking Postmedia to reveal its sources.
In response to the Conservative’s comments about her, Clark told Postmedia that “the fact that I am spending more time criticizing Premier David Eby’s terrible economic record than (Findlay) is not a recipe for success for the Conservatives.”
Hamish Telford , a University of the Fraser Valley political scientist, said it’s clear that Findlay is moving toward centralizing party authority and shifting it to the right.
He said that anybody with ties to the old B.C. Liberals or who isn’t deemed sufficiently conservative enough is viewed suspiciously.
“The spat with Christy Clark and to sort of lump her in with the NDP is ridiculous. Christy Clark has been implacably opposed to the NDP her entire life, and to suggest that she is part of it … really represents a rupturing of this centre-right coalition of liberals and conservatives,” said Telford.
“The party seems to be saying we don’t want the support of liberals because they’re no better than New Democrats.”