Leadership vote to be announced for B.C. Conservative Party after Rustad ouster

It’s a pivotal day for the British Columbia Conservative Party as the Opposition in the provincial legislature will announce its new leader.

The candidates, who had to pay more than $100,000 to join the race, were whittled down to five: former MLA Iain Black, commentator Caroline Elliott, former MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay, current MLA Peter Milobar and entrepreneur Yuri Fulmer.

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Ballots were sent out earlier this month and about 26,000 verified members had until Friday to rank their candidates in a preferred vote, with the party’s executive director saying Thursday that 95 per cent had voted.

Under John Rustad’s leadership, the party emerged from obscurity to come within about 30,000 votes of winning the 2024 provincial election.

Infighting fractured the caucus and reduced Conservative members in the legislature by five, and eventually led to Rustad’s expulsion in December.

The new leader will be announced at the party’s leadership convention in Vancouver.

A sixth former Conservative, Hon Chan, was removed from the caucus this year after it emerged he had been charged with assault in a case of alleged intimate partner violence.