Flop or Force? BC’s New Right-Wing Party

Two MLAs who left the Conservative Party of BC to sit as Independents have formed their own political party that promises to stop teachers from striking, end the “reconciliation industry” and introduce private health care.

The new party, OneBC, also promises to boost birth and marriage rates and “end mass immigration.”

“OneBC is for British Columbians who are proud of their history and aren’t afraid to fight for a prosperous and beautiful future,” Dallas Brodie, MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena, says in a video introducing the party. Tara Armstrong, MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream, is also listed as a member of OneBC.

In the video Brodie says she’s the interim party leader and claims B.C. is falling apart because of “socialist policies” over the past 10 years.

Brodie also promises to “combat the globalist assault on our history, culture and families” and proposes to lower income taxes by 50 per cent for people who make up to $100,000, combined with big cuts to public spending.

Tim Thielmann, an unsuccessful Conservative Party of BC candidate in the 2024 provincial election and now an aide to Brodie, is the spokesperson for OneBC. Thielmann worked briefly for the Conservative Party of BC caucus after the election before being fired by leader John Rustad.

Thielmann declined The Tyee’s request for an interview with Brodie, saying she was unavailable because she was travelling.

Jordan Kealy, a third MLA who left the B.C. Conservatives and is allied with Brodie and Armstrong, said he was not told about the formation of the new party. He said he’ll wait to see who is on the board before deciding whether to join.

“We were co-operating together, but as Independents, we all picked our own material of what we wanted to talk about, what we wanted to focus on,” said Kealy, who represents the riding of Peace River North. “This came as a surprise.”

Brodie was expelled from the B.C. Conservative caucus in early March after she made comments mocking residential school survivors in a video call. Rustad said Brodie had gone too far in publicly mocking and belittling testimony from former residential school students, “including by mimicking individuals recounting stories of abuses — including child sex abuse.”

OneBC will have official party status, which brings a pay increase of about $30,000 for Brodie. Armstrong will be eligible for an increase of about $12,000 if named house leader or caucus whip. MLAs are paid a base salary of $119,533.

OneBC will also get additional public funding for caucus staff and operations and the opportunity to raise issues in question period every day the legislature is sitting.

The creation of another right-wing party comes after a tumultuous time in B.C. political history. In the lead-up to the 2024 provincial election, the moribund Conservative Party of BC had been reinvigorated by a group of young right-wing supporters who pushed the party further to the right.

Meanwhile, the traditional centre-right party had changed its name from BC Liberals to BC United and found itself struggling to attract donors as the Conservatives grew in popularity.

In late August, just seven weeks away from election day, BC United Leader Kevin Falcon announced the party would drop out of the race and asked voters to support the B.C. Conservatives.

The NDP would narrowly win the election, but the Conservatives went from electing no MLAs in the 2020 election to winning 44 seats and becoming the official Opposition.

Michael MacKenzie, a professor of political studies at Vancouver Island University, said OneBC seems similar to the federal People’s Party of Canada: both favour big tax cuts, private health care and socially conservative policies.

But he pointed out that the People’s Party gets a very small percentage of the vote in elections — less than one per cent in the April election. The party has not been able to grow since it was founded in 2018 by disgruntled Conservative MP Maxime Bernier.

“Right before the federal election in April 2025, the PPC was polling at about 1.1 per cent in B.C. That’s about how well they did in B.C. in the election, even in the more Conservative ridings,” MacKenzie told The Tyee via email.

“The PPC got zero per cent in Kelowna, which is Tara Armstrong’s area. The PPC got 0.3 per cent in the area of Vancouver where Dallas Brodie was elected. The PPC did not have strong support in any riding in B.C. in the federal election.

“OneBC is the provincial equivalent of the PPC — and I think they will do just as badly as the PPC.”

MacKenzie pointed out that OneBC risks splitting the conservative vote — exactly the scenario that was prevented in the 2024 election when BC United folded.

MacKenzie said there will be some public support for the policies OneBC is proposing. For instance, although there is high support for Canada’s public health-care system, the system is stretched thin and voters are frustrated by long wait times and access to doctors and care.

“Will there be an appetite for more private health care in B.C.? There might be. But there will be strong opposition to anything that undermines universal access,” he said.

MacKenzie said that when it comes to safeguarding B.C.’s democratic norms, he has “mixed feelings” about some of OneBC’s other policies.

The party is proposing to conduct elections using only hand-counted paper ballots rather than the electronic vote-counting machines the province is now using. Electronic vote counting is viewed with suspicion by some voters who have consumed right-wing media narratives from the United States, which have repeated false claims the 2020 U.S. election was rigged or stolen.

“Our elections are conducted fairly and securely in B.C.,” MacKenzie said. “This policy may be intended to undermine confidence in the electoral system rather than restore it. It is a solution to a problem that does not exist.”

A proposal to hold referendums on any land transfer could also be a problem, he said, if the land transfer is from the provincial government to a First Nation.

“It’s not clear that referendums... are the right or most legitimate procedures to deal with minority rights issues,” he said.

Thielmann said the language about “large transfers of public lands” could apply to Indigenous or non-Indigenous groups.