MP Aaron Gunn Says He Is ‘Seriously Considering’ Running for BC Conservative Leadership

Federal Conservative MP Aaron Gunn says he is “seriously considering” whether to pursue the leadership of the B.C. Conservative Party and will announce his decision before Christmas.

Gunn helped the B.C. Conservatives rebuild in the run-up to the party becoming the official Opposition last year, but ultimately opted to run for federal office. He was elected as MP for North Island-Powell River in April’s federal election.

Former B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad stepped down on Dec. 4 and Surrey-White Rock MLA Trevor Halford has served as the party’s interim leader since then. Halford has said he doesn’t plan to run for the party’s top position.

Gunn said he’s received “a lot” of support from constituents and community leaders and is currently deciding whether he will enter the race to lead the party. A date has yet to be announced for the upcoming leadership vote.

“While I haven’t made a final decision, I am seriously considering doing so,” Gunn said in a Dec. 11 post on X. “Our province is being run into the ground by the NDP. They have flooded our streets with drugs, doubled our debt, compromised property rights, and crippled resource development across BC.”

B.C.’s NDP Premier David Eby has said his government is focused on improving housing affordability for Canadians and making the province safer and more prosperous.

Gunn criticized “cancel culture” in early October after Rustad dismissed communications staffer Lindsay Shepherd for comments she made about the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

“The most embarrassing form of ‘cancel culture’ is when it’s practiced by conservatives who spent their entire careers bemoaning its existence, or even being a victim of it, only to turn around and do it themselves,” Gunn posted Oct. 2 on X, although he did not mention Shepherd or Rustad by name.

Gunn’s History in BC Politics

Gunn served in the Canadian Army Reserves before becoming a documentary filmmaker and working for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

His bid to lead the province’s main centre-right B.C. Liberal Party in 2021 was cut short when the party’s leadership election organizing committee reviewed his social media and said some of his posts contained content that went against the party’s values. Some of the comments in question were those Gunn made against teaching gender identity topics in B.C. classrooms and saying there was “no genocide” in Canada’s residential school system for indigenous people.

Gunn responded by saying British Columbians who stood for “common sense and freedom of speech” were “no longer welcome in today’s B.C. Liberal Party,” and went on to found the advocacy group Common Sense B.C. A number of the group’s members were elected to the board of the B.C. Conservative Party.

Rustad joined the Conservative Party of B.C. in February 2023 after being expelled from the B.C. Liberal caucus in August 2022, for sharing a social media post questioning human-caused climate change. A month after joining the Tories he became the party’s new leader in March 2023. He stepped down on Dec. 4, 2025, after a majority of his caucus (20 MLAs) publicly said they had lost confidence in his leadership and wanted him to resign.

Gunn later won the nomination to run for the federal Conservatives in his riding in 2023 on a platform of promoting public safety and tougher penalties on criminals, as well as advocating for Canadian resource development and working to improve the cost of living.

Gunn won the riding with 38.8 percent of the vote, ahead of his NDP opponent at 32.6 percent, and the Liberal opponent at 26 percent.