British Columbia’s Official Opposition entered a new phase of instability when Prince George–Valemount MLA Rosalyn Bird walked away from the B.C. Conservatives on August 25, becoming the third caucus member to leave in just 11 days. Her exit followed Peter Milobar and Ian Paton, two experienced legislators who said the party’s direction under new leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay no longer reflected their values.
The turmoil is moving faster than the headline itself. On August 26, Richmond-Bridgeport MLA Teresa Wat also quit, turning three departures in less than two weeks into four and reducing a caucus that won 44 seats in the 2024 election to 33 members. Behind the numbers is a deeper fight over ideology, leadership, political strategy and whether the coalition that nearly won government in 2024 can still hold together.
Rosalyn Bird’s Exit Turned a Dispute Into a Caucus Crisis
Rosalyn Bird’s departure on August 25 carried particular weight because she was not simply another former B.C. Liberal politician struggling to fit into the Conservative coalition. Bird was elected directly as a Conservative in Prince George–Valemount in 2024, had served as caucus whip and previously spent years in the Canadian Armed Forces. Her exit therefore made it harder to characterize the turmoil strictly as a clash between longtime Conservatives and politicians who migrated from the former B.C. United organization. Bird said she would continue representing her northern constituency as an Independent and emphasized that changing political affiliation did not change her responsibility to the people who elected her.
Her statement also widened the dispute beyond ordinary policy disagreements. Bird said politicians should be able to reject hatred and discrimination while still debating difficult issues, and she expressed frustration with political infighting, name-calling and division. The timing was striking. Earlier that same day, Findlay had acknowledged publicly that additional MLAs could leave. Within hours, Bird did exactly that. Her departure came 11 days after Peter Milobar’s August 14 exit and one day after Ian Paton announced his own break with the caucus.
Peter Milobar’s Departure Was the First Major Warning
The current rupture began publicly on August 14, when Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar announced that he would leave the Conservative caucus and sit as an Independent. Milobar was not a peripheral backbencher. He had served as the opposition’s finance critic, had been mayor of Kamloops for three terms before entering provincial politics in 2017 and had competed against Findlay in the 2026 Conservative leadership race. Findlay had even retained him as finance critic after winning, an apparent attempt to keep competing wings of the party working together. Less than seven weeks after that shadow-cabinet announcement, Milobar concluded the arrangement was no longer workable.
Milobar described the problem as one of ideological alignment rather than a single dispute. He said Findlay had earned the right to shape the Conservatives after winning the leadership, but that his own values did not fit with the party’s new direction. Canadian Press reporting described Milobar as one of the caucus’s more moderate figures and noted Findlay’s emphasis on “faith, freedom and family.” The two had also clashed during the leadership campaign. Milobar’s exit therefore exposed a problem that went beyond personalities: the broad coalition assembled for the 2024 election was beginning to disagree over what kind of conservative party it actually wanted to be.
Ian Paton Left — Then Began Building a Rival Party
The stakes rose sharply on August 24 when Delta South MLA Ian Paton followed Milobar out of the caucus. Paton, first elected in 2017 under the B.C. Liberal banner, had stayed through the party’s transformation into B.C. United and then joined the Conservatives ahead of the 2024 election. He said he had entered the Conservative coalition believing it could unite British Columbians around private enterprise, fiscal discipline, economic growth and responsible government. Under Findlay, he said, the direction no longer aligned with those beliefs. Paton also described a noticeably different atmosphere inside the caucus after the May leadership election.
More consequentially, Paton and Milobar announced plans to create a new provincial party rather than simply remain unaffiliated Independents. Their stated goal is to provide a home for voters they describe as “politically homeless,” particularly people unhappy with the NDP but uncomfortable with the Conservatives’ current direction. They said they hoped to register the organization with Elections BC before the legislature’s fall sitting. British Columbia law gives an important advantage to such an effort: an additional political party represented by at least two MLAs can qualify for recognition in the legislature. That can provide staffing, research resources and a much larger platform than two isolated Independent members would normally possess.
Findlay Inherited a Coalition That Was Already Difficult to Hold Together
Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s authority rests on a leadership victory that was legitimate but exceptionally close. On May 30, the former federal Conservative MP won on the fourth ballot with about 51 per cent of the points, defeating commentator Caroline Elliott, who received roughly 49 per cent. More than 25,000 members participated in the contest. Milobar, one of five candidates, was eliminated earlier in the balloting. Findlay emerged promising a more explicitly conservative political program and telling supporters that a future government would emphasize themes including faith, family and freedom.
The leadership change was followed by significant organizational turnover. Former executive director Angelo Isidorou left, while party president Aisha Estey and vice-president Sharon White also departed their positions. Estey was replaced by Mauro Francis and White by Pavneet Singh. Paton later described the changes as a “purging” of staff and leadership, a description Findlay rejected. She said she had not personally fired those executives and maintained that some departures were voluntary while others were handled by the party board. Whatever interpretation is placed on those personnel moves, they matter politically because several of the people leaving had helped transform the B.C. Conservatives from a fringe organization into the Official Opposition in only a few years.
The Party’s 2024 Breakthrough Makes the Collapse More Significant
The instability is remarkable because of how close the Conservatives came to forming government less than two years ago. Elections BC’s final results from October 2024 gave the NDP 47 seats, the Conservatives 44 and the Greens two. The Conservatives had gone from having almost no institutional presence in provincial politics to becoming the dominant alternative to the NDP. Their surge was helped dramatically when B.C. United ended its provincial election campaign, allowing much of the anti-NDP vote, organization and political talent to consolidate behind John Rustad’s Conservatives.
That coalition has proved difficult to maintain. Departures and expulsions began before Findlay took over, and the latest wave has accelerated the decline. By August 25, Canadian Press reporting put the Conservative caucus at 34 MLAs after Bird’s departure and other earlier changes, including the loss of several members since the election and Reann Gasper’s move to vacate Abbotsford-Mission so Findlay can seek a legislature seat. After Teresa Wat’s departure on August 26, Canadian Press reported that the caucus had fallen to 33. The Conservatives remain by far the largest opposition group, but a loss of 11 seats from their 2024 election total is a substantial erosion for a party trying to present itself as a government-in-waiting.
A New Centre-Right Party Could Reshape the Opposition
Milobar and Paton are not merely protesting Findlay’s leadership; they are attempting to create another electoral vehicle on the centre-right. That distinction matters. Elections BC says registering a political party requires an organization to demonstrate that its primary purpose is fielding provincial candidates, establish officers, appoint a financial agent and auditor, and complete the required registration process. Outside an election period, the chief electoral officer generally has up to 30 days after receiving an application to determine whether the requirements have been satisfied.
The pair already possess something most start-up parties lack: seats inside the legislature. B.C.’s Constitution Act defines the leader of a recognized additional political party around an organization represented by at least two MLAs, while the Legislative Assembly Management Committee Act similarly recognizes an “additional party” with two or more members. Political scientist Hamish Telford of the University of the Fraser Valley has argued that having sitting legislators would give a new organization visibility and resources that other emerging parties do not possess. There is also a major strategic risk. A viable alternative on the centre-right could divide voters who oppose the NDP. Milobar has acknowledged those vote-splitting concerns, but argues that some voters would otherwise have no political option they consider acceptable.
Teresa Wat’s Departure Shows the Crisis Is Still Expanding
By the morning of August 26, the description of Bird as the third MLA to leave in less than two weeks was already out of date. Richmond-Bridgeport MLA Teresa Wat announced that she too would sit as an Independent, becoming the fourth recent departure and the third Conservative MLA to quit in three consecutive days. Wat, a former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister who joined the Conservatives in 2024, tied her decision directly to Findlay’s leadership. She said remarks attributed to Findlay had questioned her allegiance to Canada and caused damage to her reputation. Published reports said the disputed comments included a reference to Wat as “CCP,” meaning the Chinese Communist Party.
Wat said Findlay had indicated an apology would be made, but that none had arrived before she made her decision. Her exit brought the Conservative caucus down to a reported 33 MLAs from the 44 elected in 2024. It also reinforced the central problem confronting Findlay: the dispute is no longer confined to one ideological faction or one disgruntled leadership rival. Multiple legislators are independently concluding that they cannot remain under the current leadership. Findlay has insisted the party’s platform has not changed and says Conservatives will continue focusing on defeating the NDP. The test will come quickly. The legislature is scheduled to resume its regular fall sitting in early October, potentially with a smaller Conservative caucus, a larger group of Independents and a new party being organized by two former opposition MLAs.
