Lorne Doerkson has led the BC conservative party since 20 September, when Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned after four months as leader and after 14 MLAs had quit, resigned their seats or been expelled from a caucus that won 44 seats in 2024.
Ian Paton, one of them, told The Canadian Press that Findlay's chief of staff offered him an agricultural adviser job paying $122,043 if he gave up his seat for her, and Findlay called the suggestion that she illegally offered jobs "preposterous".
Donegal Wilson and Scott McInnis two of the 14 Conservative MLAs who left the caucus this summer, cited their reason for leaving due to senior appointees' reported links to Alberta separatism, and on 15 October. The party dropped its Vancouver-Strathcona candidate an hour after an NDP rival published posts attributed to him saying Hitler did not "specifically" hate Jews.
The candidates
Jordan McIntosh, Vancouver-Strathcona (dropped)
Callista Ryan, the NDP candidate for Vancouver-Quilchena, posted screenshots at 12:18 on 15 October from an anonymous X account called "DeathNight" that she attributed to McIntosh, who is 18. One post said "Lots of Jews died because there were LOTS in Europe, NOT because he hated them specifically" of Adolf Hitler, and Ryan said the account had posted or reposted a racial slur more than 40 times in the past year. At 13:02 the party wrote: "The candidate in Vancouver-Strathcona is no longer a Conservative candidate. If elected, he will not sit in caucus." The party did not say whether McIntosh ran the account, Ryan's attribution has not been independently confirmed and outlets that asked McIntosh for comment published none.
Joachim Agou, Victoria-Beacon Hill (dropped)
Agou wrote in French on 7 September 2025, under a clip of a car driving into a pro-Palestinian rally in Lausanne, that the driver should have reversed too. On 26 June 2025 he shared a meme of Donald Trump saying "My God, Pakistan looks like a shithole" and wrote in reply that it was London, and on 6 November 2024 he reposted a "Make the West Great Again" image of Trump, Elon Musk and several European far-right leaders. Doerkson dropped him on 8 October, the day the NDP published the posts: "There is no excuse for this. I will not tolerate it." Agou apologised on 9 October, rejected the accusation of racism and remains on the ballot as an independent because Elections BC had already printed it.
Katy Merrifield, campaign director
Merrifield reposted a UK report on grooming gangs by Rupert Lowe, leader of the anti-immigration party Restore Britain, adding "Fuck Islam" and calling Islam an "abhorrent ideology", and reposted a post by Eylon Levy, a former Israeli government spokesperson, calling "Allahu Akbar" a "Jihadi war cry", PressProgress reported on 13 October. The Tyee reported that she wrote "Defend Western civilization. I will die on this hill." and promoted posts calling Islam "rape culture" and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani a "jihad-loving mayor". Merrifield wrote on 9 October that she "took down my original post within hours" and that her anger was aimed at extremism, "not at Muslims or their faith". The Unified Muslim Association of BC and the BC Muslim Association called for her removal, and Eby asked Doerkson on 10 October to remove her. Zeeshan Wahla, a party spokesperson and the Conservative candidate for Surrey City Centre, said Agou had incited violence, while Merrifield was reacting to violence. Doerkson said at the 14 October debate that she "acted out in a moment of trauma" and had "been very apologetic", and kept her.
Heather Maahs, Chilliwack North
Maahs, an incumbent MLA whom Findlay named interim Opposition leader on 30 June, is heard in a video posted by NDP candidate Spencer Chandra Herbert saying of LGBTQ education: "It's for sure grooming. It desensitizes kids." In 2025 she invited ARPA Canada, which opposes abortion and LGBTQ-inclusive education, to an event at the legislature. Doerkson said on 3 October "I don't share that view, of course" and that she would remain a candidate, and at the debate on 14 October: "I would see that as hateful."
In March 2021, as a Chilliwack school trustee, Maahs wrote a blog post calling a "Slave for a Day" fundraiser "always a fun event for both students and teachers" and arguing that removing a student's blackface portrayal in To Kill A Mockingbird lost "the inherent racism in the story". She wrote on X on 18 October that the teachers' union president who shared the post was "vilifying teachers who were using drama for instruction". Elenore Sturko, the CentreBC leader, says Maahs called her "immoral" for being gay, which Maahs denies. On 23 October 2025 Maahs was one of five MLAs who voted to introduce Dallas Brodie's Land Acknowledgement Prohibition Act, which the legislature rejected 85 to five.
Harman Bhangu, Langley-Abbotsford
Bhangu, an incumbent MLA, also voted to introduce the land acknowledgement ban, the only other Conservative to do so, and on 27 August won Elections BC approval for a citizens' petition to repeal DRIPA. He has shared the claim that the 6 January 2021 rioters at the US Capitol were members of "Antifa" and criticised the Vancouver Canucks' Pride-themed practice jerseys, PressProgress reported.
Mike Hicks, Juan de Fuca-Malahat
Hicks told an all-candidates debate in Mill Bay that "The First Nations have to be conquered" and, when the moderator called time, said: "In law, we have to conquer or sign a treaty with the First Nations." He wrote that the remarks were taken out of context and that he was "inartfully explaining" why the province lacks settled treaties. On 16 October the First Nations Leadership Council called the remarks racist, and Chief Shana Thomas of the First Nations Summit said he should be withdrawn if he did not apologise. Green leader Emily Lowan and NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse called for his removal, and he is on the ballot as the Conservative candidate.
Sheldon Clare, Prince George-North Cariboo
Clare, an incumbent MLA and president of the National Firearms Association from 2010 to 2021, has said residential schools created "opportunities" for Indigenous children, PressProgress reported. In September, in a Conservative chat about municipal elections, he suggested some municipal politicians should be "hanged", according to a post by the journalist Rob Shaw. The full wording and context of both remarks have not been published, and Clare, who remains a candidate, has not publicly answered either.
Kristina Loewen, Kelowna Centre
Loewen, an incumbent MLA who won the seat by 40 votes in 2024, reposted a video of US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. linking fluoride and mobile phone radiation to chronic illness with the comment "Such an important conversation. So glad he's saying it." and reposted claims that vaccines cause cancer and autism. She shared content in a Facebook group called "Reject NWO (New World Order) BS" about 15-minute cities, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, and InfoNews Kelowna reported in September 2024 that she had compared pandemic restrictions to the Holocaust. She referred questions to the party, which answered by attacking Eby.
Jody Toor, Langley-Willowbrook
Toor, an incumbent MLA and former caucus chair, launched her 2024 campaign as "Dr. Jody Toor" and had been described in a 2021 press release as "an MD and board-certified integrative medicine doctor", The Tyee reported in January 2025. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC confirmed she is not registered or licensed to practise medicine in the province, and her doctorate in integrative medicine came from Quantum University in Hawaii, which is unaccredited and states that its degrees are not equivalent to an MD. Her party profile now says she is "non-prescribing" and not registered with the college. The Conservatives did not respond to The Tyee's requests for comment.
Bryan Tepper, Surrey-Panorama
Tepper, an incumbent MLA, shared a meme in 2023 saying the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol "was a lie".
Anna Kindy, North Island
Kindy, a physician and former Conservative health critic whom Findlay named a lieutenant for Vancouver Island, donated to the 2022 convoy protest that occupied downtown Ottawa for three weeks, joined convoy-linked rallies outside the legislature and praised natural immunity over "leaky" COVID-19 vaccines at a conference linked to the convoy and the People's Party of Canada, PressProgress reported.
Bruce Banman, Abbotsford South
Banman, an incumbent MLA who crossed to the Conservatives from BC United, quit caucus on 27 August and rejoined weeks later. He has said "motherhood begins at conception", and Campaign Life Coalition, which opposes abortion, has endorsed him.
Margareta Dovgal, Vancouver-Yaletown, and Simon Chandler, Burnaby North
Othman Mekhloufi, a former OneBC staffer who on a call with the white nationalist Alex Vriend gave tips on pushing Conservative parties towards mass deportation, posted a campaign photo with Dovgal captioned "Patriots" and endorsed Chandler, who wrote back "Much appreciated!" Mekhloufi also wrote, in a post since deleted, that "Katy has never shown me an ounce of prejudice despite having an Arab last name." The photo and reply show contact with Mekhloufi and are not evidence that either candidate shares his views.
The money
The BC Conservatives want to cut taxes by $11.1 billion over four years, even though the province is already spending far more than it brings in.
Their own plan shows BC would spend $13.7 billion more than it collects this year, $13.5 billion more next year, $12.3 billion more in 2028–29 and $10.8 billion more in 2029–30. Lorne Doerkson says BC’s debt is “staggering,” but his plan would cut tax revenue by $11.1 billion over four years while the province continues to spend billions more than it collects.
That means less money coming in to pay for healthcare, schools, affordable housing, roads and other public services. Without enough money to cover those costs, the province could face longer hospital wait times, fewer resources for schools, delayed housing projects and cuts to other services. If affordable housing projects are delayed or cancelled, fewer rental homes could be built, making it harder for renters to find a place and potentially pushing rents higher than they already are. The Conservatives would have to find savings elsewhere, raise other revenue or borrow even more money to avoid those cuts.
The main point is that the income tax cut would cost BC about $2.9 billion a year, but it would not help everyone equally. Someone earning $40,000 would receive roughly the same dollar savings as someone earning $400,000, according to the figures provided. Meanwhile, people earning less than $13,216 who already pay no provincial income tax would receive no benefit from that change.
The Conservatives also propose removing provincial sales tax on business purchases of machinery, equipment and software for three years, costing another $500 million annually. Together, those two measures would reduce provincial revenue by approximately $3.4 billion a year while BC is already running large deficits. The plan also depends on BC’s economy growing much faster than economists expect. They predict growth of 2.5% this year, 2.8% next year and 3.2% in 2029. RBC expects just 0.8% and 1.5% over the first two years, while UBC Okanagan economist Ross Hickey expects around 1% annually.
This matters because the Conservatives are relying on faster economic growth to bring in more tax revenue and help pay for their promises. Doerkson says his growth projections are “absolutely doable,” but UBC Okanagan economist Ross Hickey disagrees. Hickey's concerns are backed by RBC's much lower growth forecasts. Unlike the Conservatives, these economists are not presenting figures to support an election platform. It raises questions about why the Conservatives expect BC's economy to grow so much faster and what their plan would do if it doesn't.
If the economy grows more slowly than they predict, the province could collect less money than their budget assumes. That would leave BC with even larger deficits unless the government borrowed more, raised other revenue or reduced spending. And yes, borrowing more would also come at a cost. The province would have to pay interest on that additional debt, leaving less money available for healthcare, education, housing and other priorities in future years.
BC sets aside $5 billion a year to cover costs it cannot predict, including wildfires, additional surgeries, rising demand for public services and wage increases for public workers. The BC Conservatives claim this money a “slush fund.” They want to reduce it to $3 billion and count the $2 billion difference as savings. But cutting money from the budget does not make those unexpected costs disappear. If BC faces another severe wildfire season, hospitals need more funding or public sector wages rise, the government would still have to find the money.
Economist Jim Stanford says this change accounts for 60% of the spending cuts claimed in the Conservative platform. He argues that reducing a budget reserve does not necessarily produce real savings because the money was only set aside in case it was needed. After removing those claimed savings and adjusting the party's disputed revenue projections, Stanford estimates BC's annual deficit could exceed $15 billion in each of the next two years.
Conservatives are counting on saving $2 billion without explaining how they would pay for emergencies and unexpected expenses if those costs arise.
If the remaining $3 billion is not enough, the government could have to borrow more, move money away from other programs or reduce services to cover the difference. The Conservatives are also promising $1.425 billion in additional annual spending by 2030–31, making it important to explain how those commitments would be funded alongside their tax cuts.
Climate and resources
British Columbia emitted 61.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2023, 6 per cent below the 2007 level, and oil and gas operations produced 11.6 million tonnes of that, about 19 per cent. The province's 2030 target for the oil and gas sector is a cut of 33 to 38 per cent from 2007. The Conservative platform would "Repeal CleanBC", the plan built to cut provincial emissions 40 per cent by 2030, and commits to "doubling natural gas production by 2032 and tripling it by 2035". It would keep the carbon price on large industrial emitters and cites government modelling that CleanBC leaves the economy $28.1 billion smaller in 2030 than under 2017 policies.
The International Energy Agency forecast in July 2025 that global LNG supply would rise 7 per cent in 2026, the largest increase since 2019, led by North America. Pablo Galante Escobar, head of LNG at the trader Vitol, said in February that "an unprecedented increase in supply that we are seeing, from 2024 to 2030" "is going to bring some stress to the market", and Eni expects the extra supply to push prices down in 2027 and 2028; QatarEnergy's chief executive, Saad al-Kaabi, said demand from data centres could turn the expected glut into a shortage by 2030. The platform counts on $898 million over three years from natural gas royalties and forestry stumpage, and its growth projections assume gas production rising towards a doubling by 2032.
The platform sets "a floor of 45 million cubic metres" of timber for the industry. Loggers cut 39 million cubic metres in 2023, down from 71 million in 2014, and the province's state of environment report attributes the falling supply to the mountain pine beetle, catastrophic wildfires and expanded conservation areas. The platform would also resolve the old-growth logging deferrals while protecting "original old growth" and the rarest ecosystems.
On wildfire, the Conservatives would budget for fire seasons at their actual cost, spend $400 million expanding the firefighting aircraft fleet and shift money towards prevention, including prescribed and cultural burning and FireSmart funding for municipalities. The same platform cuts the annual contingency fund, which the province now draws on when fire seasons exceed their budget, from $5 billion to $3 billion.
Separatism
Albertans voted on 19 October to stay in Canada, giving remain 75.8 per cent in Elections Alberta's unofficial count. In the summer Findlay made Apollo Chung the BC Conservatives' director of operations; the Republican Party of Alberta, which campaigns for Alberta's separation, had listed him as its executive director and as financial officer for some of its candidates. Chung gave that party $5,000 in early 2025, the maximum Alberta allows, the Toronto Star found, and he told PressProgress he had spoken with people in Alberta's separatist movement about organising after Mark Carney's federal win.
Elections Alberta says the Republican Party's 2025 copy of the provincial voter list, with the names, addresses and phone numbers of nearly three million Albertans, ended up with the Centurion Project, a separatist turnout app built with Michigan's 10X Votes. A judge in Edmonton ordered Centurion to take its database down on 30 April, and the RCMP and Alberta's privacy commissioner opened their own investigations. Investigators have accused Chung of nothing in connection with the list, and the dates he held the Republican Party post are not public.
Findlay also hired Cosmin Dzsurdzsa, who came from Juno News and had written for Russia Insider, which the BBC and Newsweek have described as Russian government propaganda, as caucus communications director, The Tyee reported. Dzsurdzsa described Juno's interview with Daniel Tyrie, whose Dominion Society of Canada calls for deporting 21 per cent of Canada's population, as showing "genuine vitality on the Canadian right right now". Stewart Prest, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, said the hires were "very much a deliberate strategy at this point".
Wilson, the MLA for Boundary-Similkameen, left caucus on 2 September and said "more than one" senior Findlay appointee "has been reported to have links to Alberta's separatist movement". McInnis, the MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke, left hours later, saying the party had become an "exclusive private club more concerned with ideological bona fides" than building a coalition and citing connections to Alberta separatism on Findlay's senior team. Doerkson restored McInnis to caucus in September, and Wilson sits as an independent.
David Williams, the incumbent Conservative MLA for Salmon Arm-Shuswap, posted on Facebook in April 2025 a map titled "The Republic of Western Canada", covering British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Yukon without Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland and captioned as a protectorate of the United States. He deleted it about 90 minutes later and said he had not read it carefully: "There's absolutely no way I believe that we should be a protectorate of the United States."
Doerkson's standard
Doerkson has removed Agou, over a post endorsing a car attack on protesters, and McIntosh, over posts minimising the Holocaust, since the nomination deadline of 3 October. He has kept Maahs, whose remarks he called hateful, and Merrifield, whose language the party called unacceptable, and Hicks and Clare are still running. Wahla's distinction between inciting violence and reacting to it is the only test a party official has stated publicly during the campaign, and the Conservatives did not answer The Tyee's questions about the candidates' remarks.
The seat-for-job
Findlay won the leadership on 30 May without a seat in the legislature, and to sit there she needed a Conservative MLA to resign and open a riding for a byelection. Rosalyn Bird, then a Conservative MLA, said on 29 July that she had been asked to step down so Findlay could run in her riding, and Lynne Block and Ian Paton, the MLA for Delta South, said they had refused similar requests, Global News reported.
Paton says the request to him came with an offer. He told The Canadian Press that Chris Delaney, Findlay’s chief of staff, offered him in July an agricultural adviser job paying $122,043, his salary as an MLA, if he resigned. “It’s my word against their word,” Paton said, adding that the offer was made orally and that he kept no notes. Reann Gasper resigned as MLA for Abbotsford-Mission on 22 August so Findlay could run there, and Findlay announced the same day that Gasper would become her deputy chief of staff. Paton left caucus two days later.
An anonymous X account, “The Findlay Files”, posted audio on 28 August in which a person who sounds like Findlay says: “I could give them a role as senior adviser in their same portfolio.” Findlay called the clip “unverified” and a “political smear job”, said the comments were “normal political discussions” and called the suggestion that she illegally offered jobs for resignations “preposterous”. Two RCMP officers interviewed Paton for about an hour in Surrey on 2 September and warned he could be subpoenaed as a witness, he said. Delaney resigned that day, and Findlay promoted Gasper to chief of staff. The RCMP said it does not confirm or deny investigations until charges are laid.
Section 124 of the Criminal Code makes it a crime to offer or give a reward for someone’s resignation from an office, and to accept one. Paton’s account describes that exchange: a paid job in return for vacating his seat. Joven Narwal, a criminal lawyer, told The Canadian Press that a prosecutor would have to prove a quid pro quo beyond a reasonable doubt and that a police inquiry does not mean charges will follow. In 2013 Ben Stewart gave up his seat for then-premier Christy Clark and was later appointed a special representative in Asia at $150,000 a year.
The collapse
Findlay entered the final week of the leadership race under investigation by the federal elections watchdog. The Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections was “currently conducting interviews and requesting information” about her unsuccessful 2025 federal campaign, Rob Shaw of Business in Vancouver reported on 20 May, citing an email from senior investigator Stéphane Bonin saying the office had “received a complaint from Elections Canada”. The complaint alleges that a corporation gave the campaign about $75,000 in undeclared, unpaid services in return for promised federal contracts and that about 50 people, apparently foreign nationals without legal status, canvassed for her. The commissioner’s office does not confirm investigations and publishes outcomes only when they end in compliance measures or charges. Findlay’s campaign called the allegations “patently false” and said she had received no notice of an investigation.
The party’s leadership election organising committee decided on 22 May that it had too little credible evidence to remove her from the ballot and said she had “not provided any substantive response or co-operated”. She won the leadership eight days later.
Findlay fired Chung on 26 August after audio attributed to him circulated in which the speaker demands “half a million dollars”, and Chung said some clips were “doctored”. On 17 September Bruce Hallsor KC, the lawyer the party hired to look into reports that a private investigator had been paid to watch its critics. His preliminary findings, released on 17 September, said a former executive director had hired a private investigator to watch more than two dozen people, including journalist Rob Shaw and MLA Brennan Day. The party has not released his full report. Its financial filings with Elections BC would show whether party money paid for the surveillance. Party sources named her as Elaine Allan, a personal friend of Findlay, who did not respond to CJDC. Findlay said: “I was unaware of it. They are just allegations.”
After Saturday
Polls close on Saturday 24 October, and a Conservative government would table its first budget against the deficit of $13.7 billion projected for this fiscal year, and the independent review of provincial finances the platform promises would set the size of the spending cuts the platform leaves unspecified. Repeal of DRIPA requires a bill passed by the legislature, and Bhangu's citizens' petition for repeal closes on 25 January 2027. The province's appeal of the Cowichan title ruling continues whichever party governs. Hallsor's report names the person who hired the private investigator, and the RCMP's file on Paton's account, if one exists, would go to the BC Prosecution Service for any charge assessment under section 124.
