Another MLA Leaves BC Conservative Caucus

Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee has announced she is leaving the B.C. Conservative Party to sit as an independent, becoming the fifth MLA to exit the party this year.

Boultbee said her Oct. 20 departure from the B.C. Conservatives was not caused by political disagreement but by concerns over John Rustad’s leadership of the party, calling for him to resign.

“If John was serious about caring more about the conservative movement than his own ego, he should have gracefully resigned when the membership scandal emerged,” Boultbee said Oct. 20 in Victoria. “That would have been appropriate. Instead, he has told us that he will cling to power by all means necessary.”

Ahead of the Sept. 22 leadership review, which Rustad passed with 71 percent support, media reports cited some party insiders alleging irregularities and fake memberships. The party said in a statement announcing the results that the vote was conducted by “an impartial third party.”

Boultbee also said Rustad had told her to leave the party if she didn’t like it and has “told this caucus to their face that he doesn’t respect them.”

With her Oct. 20 exit, Boultbee becomes the fifth B.C. Conservative MLA to resign or be expelled from the party since last October’s provincial election.

Former B.C. Conservative MLA Elenore Sturko was kicked out of the party and became an independent hours after the leadership results were announced on Sept. 22, with Rustad saying certain “issues” were “not reconcilable” with Sturko. For her part, Sturko said she was among a group of MLAs with “concerns” about Rustad’s leadership campaign.

The B.C. Conservatives became the province’s Official Opposition last year, electing 44 members to the legislature in October elections. The expulsion of Sturko was preceded in March by the removal of Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie from the B.C. Conservatives following comments she made about Canadian residential schools.

Fellow MLAs Tara Armstrong and Jordan Kealy also quit the B.C. Conservatives in solidarity with Brodie, with Kealy sitting as an independent and Armstrong forming a new party called OneBC alongside Brodie in mid-June.

Boultbee said in her Oct. 20 press conference that she will collaborate with Sturko as an independent, but would consider coming back to rejoin the party if Rustad is no longer the leader.

Responding to Boultbee’s exit, Rustad said he has concerns about her mental health and said stress in her role as critic for children and family development had caused her distress.

“She’s had some issues in the past and I tried to do everything I could to support her in whatever those issues may be,” Rustad said Oct. 20. “She was very uncomfortable with our position on parental rights and SOGI [Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity].”

Boultbee and B.C. Conservative House Leader A’aliya Warbus left the chamber Oct. 8 when Rustad and party members voted in favour of a private member’s bill from OneBC that aimed to restrict childhood gender transition in the province and grant parents expanded legal rights to sue health care providers up to 25 years after promoting or performing gender transition surgery on their child. The bill was voted down before first reading, with blanket opposition from the NDP.

Boultbee has also previously joined Sturko in criticizing a reception by the B.C. Conservatives for the Association for Reformed Political Action, which describes itself as a “grassroots Christian political advocacy organization,” with Boultbee saying she disagrees with the association’s positions and “wouldn’t willingly be caught dead with them in public.”

Rustad said he believes the party is in a strong position and that Boultbee’s exit means there will be less media leaks going forward.

“I don’t believe there’s anybody else who is considering leaving our caucus,” Rustad said.

The party faced further controversy in early October when it ousted communications staff member Lindsay Shepherd over her online comments about how the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was marked at the provincial legislature with an orange flag, saying the flag and the orange shirt “perpetuate untruths about Canadian history.”

The absence of Brodie, Armstrong, Kealy, Sturko, and Boultbee now brings the B.C. Conservative presence in the B.C. legislature down to 39, compared to the governing NDP’s 47 seats. An Abacus poll released Oct. 20 shows B.C.’s NDP has a 7 percent lead over the B.C. Conservatives among decided voters.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.