In OneBC’s World, Political Opposition Is Branded as Harassment

I’ve been watching OneBC’s public theatre closely. Some things stand out starkly. First, the irony of party leader Dallas Brodie condemning universities, saying students are “coming out of these schools like zombies who repeat mantras about how bad our country is,” when the backbone of her platform is that B.C. is broken and only OneBC can save it.

Brodie was elected as a Conservative Party of BC MLA in the 2024 provincial election. But she was kicked out of the caucus in March after she mocked residential school survivors during a recorded Zoom call. Joined by Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong, Brodie then created a new party that has staked out a series of far-right positions.

At a Penticton town hall on Oct. 2, Brodie railed against universities, immigration, sexual orientation and gender identity or SOGI curriculum, and reconciliation efforts. She claimed that “universities are producing graduates who are taught that Canada is broken,” but her own rhetoric tells the same story. Every speech, every social media post insists that society is falling apart, that everything from housing to education to gender inclusion is evidence of collapse, and that only OneBC can fix it.

This is the classic populist playbook: sow grievance, divide communities and promise to “restore” morality. Brodie’s message isn’t about fixing what’s broken — it’s about convincing people that it’s broken so they can offer themselves as the cure.

At their town hall, OneBC took aim at local activists who had spoken out about the party’s message. The pressure led to four venues declining to host the party’s event, forcing them to hold their town hall in a backyard.

“We saw there was this terrible harassment going on.... These are bad people who are doing this,” Paul Ratchford, OneBC’s interim executive director, told the Kelowna Courier.

That’s not how democracy works. Activists had done nothing illegal. They educated venue owners about the group’s politics and history. That’s lawful political speech, not “harassment.”

But in the OneBC world view, any opposition is malicious.

OneBC also claims their extremist views are mainstream. “We effectively have the far-left fringe blocking and harassing those with mainstream political opinions from utilizing public facilities and private venues,” the party posted on X the day after the Penticton event.

It’s a deeply dangerous narrative: turning ordinary civic participation into a moral crime. Political protest becomes persecution, and OneBC’s supporters are cast as the persecuted victims. It’s emotional manipulation that corrodes democratic discourse.

When the City of West Kelowna denied a permit to MAGA preacher Sean Feucht, OneBC framed it as another attack by “violent leftist activists.”

“Singing Christian worship songs is not a safety concern,” the party posted on X. “Mobilizing violent leftist activists to storm peaceful events is a safety concern. OneBC is here to fight for fairness and the basic rights of all people in British Columbia.”

Except they’re not fighting for fairness and basic rights for all people. Only for people who look like them, think like them and believe what they believe.

MLA Tara Armstrong added her own post. “In a country governed by law, protesters don’t get to shut down public gatherings with threats of violence.”

Except there was no evidence of threats of violence. What there was, instead, was community pushback. People using their voices to question why extremist speakers and groups are being platformed on taxpayer-funded property in the first place.

And then there’s Brodie’s video on immigration, where she blamed “mass immigration” for the housing crisis, traffic congestion, unemployment and hospital shortages. That isn’t analysis; it’s scapegoating. It’s pure fear-mongering meant to pit struggling Canadians against newcomers, while distracting from policy failures that predate the newcomers she’s blaming.

This is what OneBC is really about: grievance politics dressed up as populist salvation. They brand themselves as champions of fairness and freedom, but their platform divides the province by race, gender and belief. They claim to defend free speech while calling protest “harassment.” They invoke democracy while undermining its foundations.

OneBC isn’t building a movement for a better British Columbia. They’re building resentment. Against immigrants, queer and trans people, Indigenous communities, educators and anyone who challenges their narrative. And that resentment is a danger to democracy itself.

Because when political disagreement and lawful protest is labelled as violence and criminal harassment, the only voices left standing are the ones who make it criminal to question them.