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By Michael Reeve

TORY GROWING PAINS

Kamloops MLAs standing strongly with BC Conservatives in face of caucus defections

Mar 10, 2025 | 4:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — The BC Conservative caucus now stands at 41 members and, if jettisoned MLA Dallas Brodie is to be believed, that number could decline further. Following her removal from caucus, Brodie found support from fellow MLAs Jordan Kealy and Tara Armstrong, and the three will now sit as independents in legislature, while mulling over the creation of a new right-of-centre political party. It’s the latest show of growing pains for the BC Conservatives who surged into Official Opposition status last October following the demise of BC United.

“Not ‘His truth. Her truth. Oh, my grandmother’s truth.’ This whole thing about ‘My truth, your truth,”‘ said Brodie in a mocking voice during a recent podcast interview.

It was not her original statement with regards to unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, but that double down, mocking the testimony of survivors that led to the exodus of three Conservative members from caucus.

“I’m sorry that they don’t seem to be on the same page as we are, but we are moving forward and we are going to form the next government. And we have to be responsible in how we approach that, and what we say and how we say it,” said Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer.

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After last year’s collapse of BC United, Peter Milobar is no stranger to upheaval in caucus, taking the loss of three members in stride.

“There was some fairly major differences of opinion on certain subject areas we’ve had. And that seems to have worked out over the last week here with people deciding they would rather go it alone than be part of a broader BC Conservative team,” Milobar told CFJC News.

The three former colleagues leave behind critic portfolios, but due to the size of the opposition party, they are in position to handle the loss of manpower.

“Ms. Brodie was actually a shared attorney general critic with Steve Kooner, who is doing a great job, as well. We have some other expertise in the legal field but in some of the other critic areas, as well. Ian Paton was sharing the agriculture file with Jordan Kealy, so that will be seamless in terms of him taking that on,” said Milobar.

Both Milobar and Stamer, along with Fraser-Nicola MLA Tony Luck, have stated they put no thought into leaving the Tory caucus.

The NDP have already survived one confidence vote and it’s more than likely despite the divorce, the independents will vote along Conservative lines.

“Those three who left, they are still conservative-minded. Maybe they are a little further on the needle, so to speak. But I can’t imagine they are going to supporting the NDP on anything they do going forward. I think that the dynamics haven’t really changed all that much. If we all of a sudden have an election, the dynamic could change a little bit,” stated Stamer.