BURSTKerry-Lynne Findlay, who served as a federal MP and Minister of National Revenue under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is the new leader of the B.C. Conservative Party and according to the Stikine MLA, that is good news for the North.
Sharon Hartwell said the highest percentage of votes came from the Bulkley Valley and Skeena regions overall.
“It’s very vitally important that people are going to take the North seriously, with everything, with all the opportunities going forward,” Hartwell said, “and Kerry-Lynne got that message loud and clear.”
Findlay served three terms in Parliament from 2011 to 2025, with a four-year break from 2015 to 2019. In addition to National Revenue, she served as the Associate Minister of National Defence and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice under Harper, and Chief Opposition Whip in Pierre Poilievre’s Official Opposition.
Hartwell previously endorsed Findlay and believes she can unite the party.
“I think her connection to the federal government for me was kind of the determining factor, the fact that she had that experience, she’s been in cabinet, she was the caucus whip for the federal conservatives,” Hartwell said. “She had over 100 people to kind of wrangle and keep together, so I’m sure that she, I’m confident that she’ll be able to keep us all in line.”
Findlay would need to win a byelection to be able to sit as an MLA in the B.C. legislature. She alluded to plans in the works and said she would run “as soon as possible.”
This will require someone to step down from a seat, which could theoretically be her husband, Brent Chapman, who represents Surrey South and has had recent health issues.
“Mine is a grand vision of fundamental change,” Findlay said in remarks shortly after the result was announced at the Rocky Mountaineer Station in Vancouver on Saturday evening (May 30).
“Our homes, our individual rights, our properties are at stake.”
Findlay won a nail-biter of a leadership race that took four rounds of voting to put her ahead of her nearest competitor, conservative commentator Caroline Elliott. In the final vote, Findlay won out 51 per cent to Elliott’s 49.