BC Conservatives Shun Dallas Brodie and OneBC

The Conservative Party of BC says it won’t be co-operating with “splinter parties” like right-wing OneBC, headed by former Conservative MLA Dallas Brodie.

Conservative interim leader Lorne Doerkson has acknowledged his party has had some informal talks with OneBC.

But campaign director Katy Merrifield said in a social media post that “there was no deal and there will be no deal” with OneBC on not running Conservative candidates in some ridings to avoid splitting the right-wing vote. The Conservatives have candidates running in all 93 ridings.

Doerkson and others “took calls from various splinter parties when the snap election was called to hear them out,” Merrifield wrote.

CentreBC Leader Elenore Sturko, also a former Conservative MLA, said Doerkson needs to provide more information about the nature of talks with OneBC after an apparent appearance by Second Sons Canada, a white nationalist group, in Kamloops Sept. 27, when they displayed offensive messages about children who died at residential school.

Sturko noted Brodie previously responded enthusiastically to a suggestion that the party welcome members of Second Sons Canada.

OneBC has said Brodie wasn’t aware of racist and antisemitic remarks made by the leaders of Second Sons at the time she made the comments at a 2025 town hall and does not support the group.

But Brodie and OneBC have opposed Indigenous rights and platformed residential school denialism, even creating an 80-minute video that calls into question documented abuse testimony.

OneBC did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

“What I'm talking about is how it is completely hypocritical for Lorne Doerkson to go out publicly to condemn Second Sons for their appearance in Kamloops,” Sturko said, referring to a social media post written by Doerkson the day the Second Sons group made several disturbing appearances in Kamloops.

“Only to have been at the same time... having any type of discussions with a residential school denier, party leader Dallas Brodie.”

In response to questions from The Tyee about Sturko’s remarks, the Conservatives said: “This election is about affordability, emergency rooms that close at night, and whether young people can afford to build a life here.... Only a vote for the Conservative Party of BC will replace the NDP.”

The relationship between OneBC and the Conservatives was much cosier under the short-lived leadership of Kerry-Lynne Findlay, a former Conservative member of Parliament who made opposing Indigenous rights and other socially conservative positions a focus of her leadership campaign.

Findlay posted photos of herself and Brodie meeting for dinner in August, saying the two had “so much common ground” and were “looking forward to continuing to work toward” the shared goal of defeating the NDP.

Brodie was initially elected as a Conservative MLA but was ejected from the party after appearing to mock residential school survivors.

After months of turmoil under her leadership, including the departure of nine Conservative MLAs, Findlay resigned on Sept. 20.

Eight of those MLAs had joined CentreBC. But once the election was called, seven returned to the Conservatives, leaving Sturko as CentreBC’s leader.

Since becoming interim leader and facing a snap election call in the span of a few days, Doerkson has been able to unite the fractious party. Polls showed a dramatic increase in support for the Conservatives in the days after Eby called the snap election and Doerkson made his first public appearances.

Sturko told The Tyee she’s committed to staying with CentreBC and continuing to build the party, even though she’s heard comments that it would be easier for her to win her seat if she ran with the Conservatives. She also rejected suggestions that she asked to rejoin the party but was rebuffed.

“This is beyond political expediency,” Sturko told The Tyee.

“This goes to standing up for your values and what it is that you hold important in our province, and for me, standing firmly against cosying up to far-right extremists, taking a stand against what I know to be true about the Conservatives based on personal experience, and standing with a party that is a centrist party and will uphold the rights of all British Columbians regardless of who they are.”

CentreBC has 35 candidates in the election while OneBC has 33.

The BC NDP called the snap election days after Findlay resigned, hoping to capitalize on the turmoil within the Conservatives, but is now fighting a tight race against a new leader who is convincingly presenting himself as a down-to-earth, moderate Conservative. (Doerkson has said he opposes B.C.’s sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, policy in schools and will make it a priority to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.)

The NDP has continued a familiar line of attack against the party, accusing the Conservatives of bringing Trump-like far-right politics to British Columbia. The New Democrats have also called out Conservative candidate Anna Kindy for past comments that cast doubt on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and remarks from candidate Heather Maahs that characterized SOGI as “grooming” children for abuse.

Not to be outdone, the Conservatives have characterized NDP candidate Amanda Burrows as “radical” because of her comments about reallocating police funding to other social services.

Despite the Conservatives’ attempt to focus on bread-and-butter issues such as lowering taxes and fixing emergency room closures, Sturko said she thinks voters care deeply about issues such as supporting LGBTQ+ people and reconciliation with Indigenous people.

“I've gone to lots of homes of people who don't know me, and they ask where we stand on LGBT issues, on reconciliation. And when we tell them that we are centrists and that of course we're supportive of the LGBT community, of course we want to advance reconciliation, of course we would never do something like vote against the Human Rights Code of B.C., they're relieved.”

Sturko said the activities of the Second Sons group that appeared in Kamloops need more investigation.

“We have to start having a serious conversation about whether or not these individuals should be identified as an extremist group by the federal government,” she said.

“What I want to see, and will encourage if I become premier, what I would be insisting upon and asking the director of police services to look into, is making sure that there’s funding available so that we are doing our part to investigate these extremist organizations, and to take every course of action, whether it's criminal or civil, against them.”

On Monday, the NDP promised to “press for a co-ordinated national approach to investigating and deterring white nationalist, white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity.”