Seven BC Conservative MLAs to Watch

Fifty-seven MLAs have legislative careers shorter than the lifespan of some pet mice. And they may determine whether B.C.’s accidental premier has a prolonged period leading the province.

Only six B.C. Conservative MLAs have three years of experience in the legislature. Only three served prior to 2020. Only one, Teresa Wat, has ever been a cabinet minister. Nearly half of all Conservative MLAs are entirely new to the job.

That leaves few old hands for Doerkson to turn to as he shapes his cabinet, and a lot of fresh faces to meet and determine whether they can be trusted to lead a ministry — or just stay out of trouble.

In shaping his cabinet Doerkson, aided by more experienced political staffers, will look to assemble a team that can pursue his government’s objectives without creating too many self-inflicted problems.

He’ll be told his cabinet must represent B.C.’s geography and different ethnicities. He’ll be encouraged to signal gender balance. And told of the importance of accommodating both moderates and more strident conservatives. After an election and polling that suggested the Conservatives won based on Doerkson’s appearance of moderation and normalcy, he and his insiders will have to figure out which, and how many, hardline conservatives to include in his cabinet, and how to keep their leader safe from backroom plotting.

Here are seven MLAs to watch as Doerkson shapes his cabinet.

THE FORESTER: WARD STAMER

A few MLAs seem custom-made for certain cabinet slots. Delta South MLA Ian Paton, for example, is a farmer, one of the original six former BC Liberals, and has served as agriculture critic for years. He’ll likely get that ministerial gig. Paton’s Interior doppelgänger might be Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer, a longtime logging contractor who served 11 years as a Barriere councillor and another eight as the logging community’s mayor.

Stamer and Doerkson were both part of a band of Interior moderates who supported Peter Milobar’s leadership campaign and share adjoining ridings and unflamboyant leadership styles.

For all those reasons, Stamer seems destined to be the province’s next forestry minister and will be tasked with speeding up permits and reducing barriers to log. Changes to old-growth policies could trigger protests. The Conservatives have continually declared that BC NDP policies — and not climate change, U.S. tariffs or wildfires — were to blame for the struggles of the province’s forest industry. If he is tapped for forest minister, it will be Stamer’s duty to prove that correct. The economic future of his own forestry-dependent community may be at stake.

THE WOULD-BE LEADER: CAROLINE ELLIOTT

As Doerkson’s staff scrawl names on a dry-erase board, some names will be Sharpied into history sooner rather than later. Milobar — a former finance critic and one of the party’s three most experienced MLAs — might be put in charge of the government’s budget. If not that, the Health Ministry may beckon.

Caroline Elliott, meanwhile, will also probably be slotted into a position early in the process. Elliott is new to the legislature but nearly won the party’s leadership in the spring. Although she is keen to be the public face of the party and has a prominent resumé, she threw her support behind Doerkson after his victory. But having witnessed the rise and fall of John Rustad first-hand, Doerkson will be conscious to try to mollify potential seeds of unrest down the line and seems likely to hand Elliott a meaty, prominent file.

The most obvious position would be Indigenous relations and reconciliation minister, given Elliott’s academic history on the subject. But her previous statements might make that politically risky. Instead, she might be handed a file related to B.C.’s resource industry, which occupied much of the Conservatives’ attention and was a focus of Doerkson’s victory speech.

THE TECH GURU: RYAN PETERSON

New Coquitlam-Burke Mountain MLA Ryan Peterson is one of a handful of new Conservative MLAs cut from the old BC Liberal big-business cloth. Among them, Peterson’s resumé stands out. Peterson founded a tech company called Finger Food that served other large businesses, then sold it in 2020 to San Francisco gaming giant Unity Technologies. Until the election, he was chair of the Business Council of British Columbia.

Although some portions of the right have become full-throated boosters of artificial intelligence, Doerkson struck a cautious approach during the campaign, noting water challenges that afflict many regions. However, if he wants to follow the federal government and appoint a minister focused on AI, Peterson might be his man.

THE MAYOR WITH BAGGAGE: SHARON HARTWELL

The party's base will be closely watching how Doerkson empowers or sidelines the Conservatives' most hardline MLAs. During the campaign, Dallas Brodie's OneBC party semi-endorsed eight Conservative incumbents, calling them "principled" and briefly promising not to run competing candidates. All eight — Sharon Hartwell, Heather Maahs, Kristina Loewen, Lawrence Mok, Anna Kindy, Sheldon Clare, David Williams and Macklin McCall — won their seats. Brodie's endorsement, however, highlights the candidates' real or perceived position on the party's hard right, and five had endorsed Kerry-Lynne Findlay's candidacy for leader.

Several have a history of controversial statements that might leave them on the Conservative backbenches. But Doerkson will likely want to signal that his "big-tent" party really does have a place for strident conservatives. Among the eight, Sharon Hartwell might be eyed for a potential seat in cabinet. Hartwell repeatedly praised the “Freedom Convoy” and called for the firing of provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. In February 2024, she answered "Yes" to a post on X asking if Donald Trump had won the 2020 U.S. election.

Those might be red flags for Doerkson, but Hartwell, the former mayor of the tiny village of Telkwa, also previously served on the board of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. That experience could get her a shot at a low-risk post that focuses on the nuts and bolts of governance, rather than social issues.

THE AMBITIOUS LOBBYIST: GAVIN DEW

The Conservatives’ ranks of incoming MLAs include a handful of ambitious young politicos who have made names for themselves as insider staffers, activists or public commentators.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation director Carson Binda and Resource Works lobbyist Margareta Dovgal top the list, but others include Joshua Domnich and Sacha Peter. Before they get a crack at a top job, however, they may have to follow in the footsteps of the Conservatives’ 2024 newbies.

Few young politicos in British Columbia are more ambitious than Gavin Dew, who worked on a variety of BC Liberal campaigns in the 2010s, ran unsuccessfully for the federal Liberals in 2015 and ran — again unsuccessfully — for the BC Liberal leadership in 2022. In 2019, he took a job as a lobbyist for a massive real estate play on the outskirts of Abbotsford, though his campaign biography described the project as “a $5 billion agricultural innovation and food security project in B.C.” As that project fizzled, he moved to Kelowna, where he started a child-care and indoor playground business. In 2024, he finally won political office.

Business-focused, but young, friendly and on the left of his party, Dew could be elevated to a jobs-related portfolio. Alternatively, the BC Liberals frequently looked to those with Dew’s profile to head up the Environment portfolio.

But Dew could also find himself on the outside if Doerkson and his allies are wary of handing too many portfolios to moderates and see potential cabinet members in other colleagues with Dew’s skill set but less BC Liberal internal baggage.

THE PARTY MAN: HARMAN BHANGU

Another young, ambitious MLA seemingly destined for a cabinet position is Harman Bhangu. The Langley-Abbotsford MLA was among a core of young conservative voices that energized the fledgling Conservative Party of BC and helped push it close to power in 2024. Bhangu was the party’s vice-president in 2024, prior to running and winning his seat. He has been mentioned alongside other prominent behind-the-scenes players such as Aaron Gunn and Aisha Estey.

Bhangu is seen as a staunch conservative and was one of just a few MLAs to endorse Elliott’s leadership. But unlike some of his colleagues, he has shown the ability to not put his foot in his mouth, rarely encountering controversy. Mostly.

A trucker for more than a dozen years before entering politics, Bhangu would seem the likely choice to be the Conservatives’ new transportation critic. But there is one potentially major sticking point. Last year, Bhangu gave a speech in the legislature accusing B.C.’s gravel truck drivers union, Teamsters Local 213, of “corruption” and “systemic nepotism,” after which he was slapped with a defamation lawsuit. Bhangu is also a member of the union.

Although legislature speeches are protected by parliamentary privilege, Bhangu posted a video of the speech on social media. Teamsters alleged those posts included additional comments that were defamatory. Bhangu filed a response that argued the MLA’s statements were based on fact and were about a matter of public interest, not motivated by malice, and that the Teamsters did not suffer damages.

The matter remains before the courts, according to the Teamsters’ Tony Santavenere. In July, the Teamsters filed a notice to change their lawyer. Bhangu did not respond to The Tyee’s request for information on the status of the suit.

THE WRESTLER WILD CARD: JESSY SAHOTA

With more than 60 MLAs in caucus and more than 30 newcomers, not every Conservative will get a job. The party’s 10 Surrey MLAs present specific challenges and opportunities to Doerkson.

Of the 10 MLAs, only one — Trevor Halford — has more than two years of legislative experience. Two were elected in 2024: former police officer Bryan Tepper and local business owner Mandeep Dhaliwal. The rest are newcomers.

Sahota, a Delta police officer and former champion wrestler, has one of the more interesting resumés. Young and well-spoken, he could be the face of the party in Surrey for years to come. But he may have to wait his turn or play parliamentary secretary understudy before getting a high-profile job that plays to his skill set.

That’s partly because Sahota’s sports and policing background isn’t unique in the Conservative ranks. Fellow Surrey MLA Nicholas Cartmell was previously the CEO of the BC Sports Hall of Fame and could be in line for the Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport portfolio. And another Surrey MLA, Tepper, was a longtime RCMP officer and has two valuable years of legislative experience under his belt.

Out of sight, not out of mind

Sahota is one of more than a dozen new MLAs whose factional allegiances on the right are hard to pin down — and maybe not just for the public. As Doerkson and the Conservatives’ new brass plot out their next four years, they will be trying to understand whether their new colleagues will be happy to settle in, make few demands and keep out of the news or whether they will renew the chaos that ended the tenures of two previous leaders.

As Darryl Plecas demonstrated nearly a decade ago when he left the BC Liberals to become Speaker, sometimes the most impactful MLAs can lurk out of sight for decades, only to turn B.C. politics on their head.