British Columbia’s Official Opposition has been hit by another major rupture, with Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay removing former leader John Rustad, former interim leader Trevor Halford and Skeena MLA Claire Rattée from the party’s caucus. The September 18 move came after weeks of resignations, leadership criticism and public disagreements over the direction of the B.C. Conservatives. The legislature’s clerk confirmed that all three were no longer affiliated with the Conservative caucus. Their removal brought the number of caucus losses under Findlay’s leadership to 12, while a separate group of former Conservatives simultaneously strengthened a new rival, CentreBC. For a party that came within three seats of the NDP in the 2024 provincial election, the speed of the fragmentation has transformed B.C.’s opposition landscape.
Findlay Removes Three Senior Figures in One Stroke
Findlay announced that Halford, Rattée and Rustad would no longer serve as members of the Conservative Party of British Columbia caucus “effective immediately.” Her statement framed the decision around election preparedness, arguing that the Conservatives needed to concentrate on challenging Premier David Eby’s NDP government rather than internal disputes. She said there was “no room for internal power struggles or vanity projects.” The legislature’s Office of the Clerk separately confirmed the caucus affiliation changes, giving the decision immediate practical significance inside the Legislative Assembly even as questions remained about the three politicians’ broader relationship with the party organization.
Rustad’s removal appears to have been particularly unusual. In an interview with veteran B.C. political journalist Rob Shaw, Rustad said Findlay sent him a message Thursday night telling him he had been removed from caucus. According to Rustad, another message arrived about 15 minutes later rescinding that decision. By Friday morning, however, he was out again. That sequence added an almost surreal element to an already serious political dispute: the former leader who helped rebuild the Conservatives into a major provincial force found himself removed, briefly restored and then removed again in roughly half a day.
Rustad’s Expulsion Carries an Unusual Amount of Symbolism
Rustad is not an ordinary backbench MLA. Under his leadership, the B.C. Conservatives went from a marginal force to winning 44 of the legislature’s 93 seats in the October 2024 provincial election. Elections BC recorded 911,153 Conservative votes, representing 43.28 per cent of valid ballots, compared with 44.87 per cent for the NDP. The result left the Conservatives only three seats behind David Eby’s 47-seat NDP and established them as the Official Opposition. That makes Rustad’s removal from the caucus less than two years later a striking reversal for the politician most closely associated with the party’s recent electoral breakthrough.
The current confrontation also carries an historical echo. Rustad himself resigned as Conservative leader in December 2025 after 20 caucus members said they had lost confidence in him. At the time, he said continuing to fight for the leadership would create a “civil war” inside the party and that he preferred to step aside. Trevor Halford subsequently served as interim leader until the 2026 leadership election. The wording in the present headline therefore echoes Rustad’s own description of the earlier internal struggle rather than suggesting anything literal: the party has endured repeated conflicts over leadership, ideological direction and control of the caucus.
Rattée Is Challenging the Way the Removal Happened
Rattée has made clear that she does not regard the dispute as settled simply because the legislature changed her caucus affiliation. The Skeena MLA said she was among at least 10 Conservative MLAs who had signed a letter asking Findlay to resign. She accused the leader of trying to shrink the caucus after a series of previous departures and argued publicly that Findlay did not have the authority to remove elected caucus members. Rattée also said she continued to consider herself a B.C. Conservative MLA and intended to remain in provincial politics rather than disappear after the leadership’s announcement.
That creates an important distinction between caucus affiliation and political identity. Findlay’s September 18 statement specifically said the three legislators would no longer “serve as members” of the Conservative caucus; it did not announce the cancellation of their individual party memberships. Meanwhile, the Legislative Assembly recognizes that MLAs can sit independently of a party caucus, including after changing political affiliations. In practical legislative terms, the clerk’s office records who belongs to a recognized caucus, while broader disputes about party membership, nominations and internal authority can involve separate party processes. For that reason, Rattée’s legal and organizational challenge to Findlay’s authority should be treated as her position rather than as a settled determination.
The Conservative Caucus Has Shrunk at Remarkable Speed
The numbers show how far the party has moved from its 2024 high point. The Canadian Press reported that the Conservatives had fallen to 25 caucus members after the September 18 removals, compared with the 44 Conservatives elected in 2024. Twelve caucus losses occurred after Findlay became leader in May 2026, although some of the overall decline from 44 seats had already occurred before her leadership. With 47 NDP members, two Greens and two vacancies also recorded at the time, the Conservatives remained the Official Opposition but with a dramatically reduced legislative presence compared with election night.
The speed of that deterioration is especially notable because the party was publicly presenting a very different picture only weeks earlier. On July 8, the Conservatives released a statement describing their caucus as “more united than ever” and said all Conservative MLAs supported Findlay’s leadership. The statement specifically mentioned former leadership candidate Peter Milobar and former leader John Rustad. Milobar left the caucus in August. Rustad was removed in September. By then, several other MLAs had also departed. The contrast between the July unity declaration and the September caucus count illustrates how quickly an internal disagreement can become an institutional problem once sitting legislators begin leaving in groups.
CentreBC Is Turning the Conservative Split Into a Rival Caucus
The departures are no longer producing only a collection of Independents. On September 18, eight former Conservative legislators announced that they were joining CentreBC, with Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar becoming the party’s leader. The group included Bruce Banman, Rosalyn Bird, Ian Paton, Teresa Wat, Á’aíya Warbus, Donegal Wilson and Elenore Sturko alongside Milobar. Sturko had been removed from the Conservative caucus during Rustad’s leadership in 2025, while the others had more recently broken with the Conservatives. Their arrival made CentreBC the third-largest political grouping in the legislature.
CentreBC’s growth changes the character of the Conservative crisis because dissatisfied former caucus members now have an organizational home from which to contest future elections. Milobar, who had previously planned to establish a new party with other defectors, instead joined forces with CentreBC. He said the party intended to field candidates across all 93 provincial ridings and emphasized economic policy, health care and public safety. Those are CentreBC’s stated priorities rather than an indication of how voters will ultimately respond, but the development means B.C. now has two organized parties competing for at least some of the voters, candidates and political space previously concentrated around the Conservatives and former BC United coalition.
Findlay Is Fighting for a Legislature Seat at the Same Time
The internal struggle is unfolding while Findlay is attempting to enter the legislature herself. She won the B.C. Conservative leadership on May 30 after a close four-round contest. Official party results show Findlay receiving 51 per cent of the final-round points compared with Caroline Elliott’s 49 per cent. Milobar, who is now leading CentreBC, was one of the five leadership candidates and finished fifth on the first ballot with 10.5 per cent. Findlay therefore became party leader with a narrow membership mandate while remaining outside the legislature, leaving other Conservative MLAs to handle day-to-day legislative leadership roles.
Findlay is now the Conservative candidate in the Abbotsford-Mission provincial by-election scheduled for September 26. Elections BC lists five candidates in the race and says advance voting runs from September 18 through September 23. The seat became vacant after Conservative MLA Reann Gasper resigned in August. The timing means Findlay’s attempt to win a legislative seat overlaps almost exactly with the most severe caucus disruption of her short leadership. That makes the by-election an important organizational event for the party, but its outcome remains for Abbotsford-Mission voters to determine and should not be treated as a province-wide forecast.
Snap-Election Speculation Is Raising the Stakes
British Columbia is not required to hold a general provincial election this fall. Elections BC says the next scheduled election is October 21, 2028, while noting that an election can occur earlier if the government calls one or loses the confidence of the legislature. The agency has nevertheless prepared calendars covering potential fall 2026 election scenarios. Premier David Eby said on September 18 that he had not decided whether to call an early election and told reporters he had no election announcement that day. The distinction matters because much of the Conservative leadership fight is taking place against the possibility of an early campaign, not a confirmed election date.
Municipal leaders have also pushed back against the prospect of overlapping campaigns. At the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention, delegates passed an emergency resolution asking the provincial government not to trigger an election during the municipal campaign period ahead of B.C.’s October 17 local elections. Eby said he would take the concern under advisement. Findlay, meanwhile, explicitly referenced a potential election when announcing the three caucus removals, arguing that Conservatives needed to concentrate on campaign preparation. That creates an unusual situation in which leadership discipline, candidate recruitment, a provincial by-election and possible general-election preparations are all unfolding at once.
The Immediate Fight Is Over Who Gets to Define the Conservative Coalition
The most important unresolved issue is not simply whether three MLAs sit on one side of a caucus line or another. Findlay says the party must eliminate internal power struggles and concentrate on presenting itself as the alternative to the NDP. Her critics within the former caucus argue that her leadership decisions are instead producing division. Rattée says she intends to keep fighting for her constituents. Halford, who served as interim leader after Rustad’s resignation, has said he still plans to seek re-election in Surrey-White Rock. Findlay herself had said only a day before the expulsions that she was “not going anywhere.”
What happens next will be measurable rather than speculative. Findlay faces the September 26 Abbotsford-Mission vote. CentreBC now has eight legislators and is preparing to build a province-wide candidate slate. The Conservative caucus remains the Official Opposition with 25 members as of September 18, but at least 10 MLAs had reportedly signed a letter urging Findlay to resign. Rustad, the leader who once took the party to 44 seats and later stepped down to avoid what he called a “civil war,” is again outside its caucus. Less than two years after the Conservatives nearly formed government, British Columbia’s right-of-centre political landscape is being reorganized in real time.
