OneBC’s Big Hiring Mistake

Dallas Brodie and Tara Armstrong are steering the newly launched OneBC party. But who’s down in the engine room?

The new right-wing alternative has launched with a remarkably inexperienced staff, despite the extra taxpayer money that comes with its new official party status.

And with a hiring focus on political purity that’s quickly going to become a weakness.

Two of three main staffers were Conservative Party of BC candidates who lost in the last provincial election.

The third was barred from even seeking a federal Conservative nomination in a Calgary riding.

That would be Wyatt Claypool, who started working as an adviser to then-Independent MLA Armstrong last month and now works in the same role for OneBC.

Claypool does not have a dazzling resumé.

For starters, he’s an Albertan. You would think a new B.C. political party would look for someone with roots and experience in the province. Claypool has never lived or worked here.

Nor has he worked in government, or for a political party.

In fact, Claypool doesn’t have much of a work history. Part time at a liquor store as he studied toward a master’s degree awarded two years ago. And then “co-owner and presenter” with the National Telegraph, which shares his amazingly dull political commentaries.

Add to that the fact that Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives refused to allow the then-24-year-old Claypool to try to win the party nomination in Calgary Signal Hill, disqualifying him for undisclosed reasons.

Claypool espouses the usual right-wing, social conservative orthodoxy. There are too many immigrants, especially poor ones. “Proudly pro-life” (and pro-pipelines). Cut taxes. “Baptist. Zionist. Neoconservative,” as he describes himself on X.

Paul Ratchford is the new director of strategic communications for OneBC. He ran unsuccessfully against David Eby in Vancouver-Point Grey in last year’s election, capturing 35 per cent of the vote.

But Ratchford’s candidacy likely drove moderate voters from the party as his past statements were shared and scrutinized.

“Bonnie Henry should be fired and there should be a criminal inquiry into her actions,” Ratchford had tweeted. “At this point even if there isn't a legal case to put her behind bars there is a strong moral one.”

Which should alarm anyone who doesn’t believe people should be jailed for moral crimes even if there is no legal case against them.

Ratchford also attacked the Vancouver Canucks’ decision to wear Pride-themed practice uniforms, claiming “violent anti-social trans extremists increasingly define the movement.”

He called on the government to defund the University of British Columbia when it hired a professor of race, ethics and physical culture in the school of kinesiology. Although those are important topics for future physical therapists and researchers to consider.

And, most vilely, Ratchford called Elenore Sturko, former RCMP officer, parent and BC United MLA and now a Conservative Party of BC MLA, a “woke, lesbian, social justice warrior” and a “groomer,” suggesting she was preparing children for sexual exploitation.

Tim Thielmann is OneBC’s new chief of staff. He was an unsuccessful Conservative Party of BC candidate who came a distant third in Victoria-Beacon Hill, trailing the NDP and Green candidates. (His attack on then-Green leader Sonia Furstenau’s “communist policies” apparently failed to resonate with voters.)

Thielmann, while acknowledging Indigenous people lost “ownership and control” of their lands to Great Britain and successor governments, tweeted they got “the wheel, the lightbulb, the microchip” in return — and that that should be the end of the discussion.

Thielmann was hired in November 2024 as director of research for the B.C. Conservative caucus. And then fired the following month by John Rustad for promoting divisions in the party.

He’s taken a public role with OneBC, doing media interviews that would usually be left to an elected MLA.

OneBC can hire who it wants with the $658,000 it gets from taxpayers as an official party with two MLAs.

But it’s striking that the party has chosen to turn to unsuccessful candidates and an Albertan rather than people with actual experience in B.C. political party operations.

And it’s risky that the team seems to be selected for their uniformity, from political positions to fondness for social media war games.

Everyone should read The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki, a book that convincingly argues groups, not individuals, consistently make the best decisions.

But only if the groups are diverse. A roomful of people with the same ideas and prejudices just reinforce each other. And, in the case of a political party, lack the ability to reach beyond their base.

That might make the OneBC office a fun place for people to tell each other how great their ideas are.

But it won’t help the party grow beyond its tiny fringe status.