Please Advise! Did the BC Conservatives Get It Right with Findlay?

[Editor’s note: Steve Burgess is an accredited spin doctor with a PhD in Centrifugal Rhetoric from the University of SASE, situated on the lovely campus of PO Box 7650, Cayman Islands. In this space he dispenses PR advice to politicians, the rich and famous, the troubled and well-heeled, the wealthy and gullible.]

Dear Dr. Steve,

B.C. Conservatives held their leadership vote on the weekend. The new leader is former Stephen Harper cabinet minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay.

Did the party choose well?

Signed,

Connor

Dear Connor,

As the final ballot result was announced on Saturday evening, you could surely hear the sound of champagne corks popping. But enough about the headquarters of the BC NDP. Findlay's team must have been happy too.

It was a lively gathering of B.C. Conservatives at the Rocky Mountaineer Station. The event began with a solemn land acknowledgment of the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Ha ha, Dr. Steve makes a little joke there. They’d be just as likely to kick things off with a dozen kazoos playing “Solidarity Forever.”

Land acknowledgments were a big topic in this campaign. By some algorithmic fluke, Dr. Steve’s Facebook page was regularly blessed with campaign videos from candidate Caroline Elliott. Every clip showed Elliott pouring scorn on land acknowledgments and those who give them. And Elliott was supposed to be one of the moderates.

Now, Dr. Steve is well aware that land acknowledgments can draw eye rolls from people in all parts of the political spectrum, albeit for different reasons. But the prominent focus on them certainly suggested that the Conservative leadership race was coalescing around a common theme, and it wasn’t overpriced tomatoes.

Five candidates were on the first ballot as the Conservatives began the essential process of winnowing. One of the candidates was relatively moderate and, unlike the others, had a seat in the legislature. Right, then — out goes the trash. MLA Peter Milobar was bounced on the first ballot like a mongrel at the Westminster Kennel Club.

Three quick ballots later, the winner was Findlay, former federal cabinet minister in the Harper government and wife of Surrey South MLA and rhetorical arsonist Brent Chapman. The margin of victory over runner-up Elliott was 51 per cent to 49 per cent, which is probably nothing to worry about. Everything will be fine.

“I will take the fight to grassroots British Columbians who’ve had enough of being pushed around,” the 71-year-old Findlay told the crowd in her victory speech. “I am leading to take this province back.”

Sort of an anti-land acknowledgment, then. Under a Conservative Party of BC government every event could start with the singing of “This Land Is My Land,” an edited Conservative version that goes: “This land is my land, your land is my land, their land is my land...” etc. Maybe they can book Kid Rock for the gigs.

Findlay, the former parliamentarian, closed her speech by shouting “Allons-y!” — perhaps forgetting where she was for a moment. Findlay should quickly explain that she was just saying “Hi” to her old friend Allan Zee. You don't want these people thinking you’re bilingual — they’ll suspect you are talking in globalist code.

It’s interesting that Findlay was the clear choice of the party’s right wing, despite the fact that even Elliott was jumping on the First Nations-bashing bandwagon. It seems the voters knew the difference between a real extremist and a wannabe. Part of that may be Findlay's now infamous debate moment in which she claimed Milobar had a conflict of interest because he was married to an Indigenous woman.

It may also be because Findlay supporters thought they were voting for a package deal — sort of All in the Family, if Archie Bunker had married Margaret Thatcher. Her better half Chapman famously described Palestinians as “little inbred, walking, talking, breathing time bombs... figuratively and literally” and suggested coexistence with Muslims is impossible. After the final ballot results were announced, Tyee reporter Jen St. Denis asked Findlay if she’d reached out to the Muslim community. Findlay said she and her husband had some thoroughly wonderful meetings with Muslim leaders. Oh, to be a fly on the mosque wall.

You could say that by choosing Findlay the B.C. Conservatives have shifted to the right, but that wouldn't be accurate. What they’ve done is refuse to move to the centre. The established pattern for fringe parties following a political breakthrough is to shift closer to the mainstream. On Saturday, the Conservatives stuffed that playbook into the wood chipper.

Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko, who was ousted from the Conservative caucus by former leader John Rustad, said the leadership results “have left a void in the political landscape for those who are looking for an alternative to BC NDP incompetence.”

“I feel strongly that British Columbia is best served when it is represented by a government that values broad perspectives and stays away from polarizing extremes.”

Findlay will face some challenges. One is a possible Elections Canada investigation into her unsuccessful 2025 federal campaign spending to see if rules were broken.

Another will be keeping the paranoid fires burning even though recent court decisions suggest that all the Aboriginal title hysteria since the Cowichan decision has indeed been overblown.

But the biggest challenge might be one that Findlay will understand, as a member of a prominent football family. Her father Stephen played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, her brother Greg for the BC Lions. Both of them could tell her that when you leave a big hole up the middle, it’s trouble.