MLA Teresa Wat quits B.C. Conservatives over ‘distasteful’ Findlay remarks

Wat is the third MLA to exit the official opposition in as many days, after Prince George-Valemount legislative member Rosalyn Bird announced her departure on Tuesday, a day after Delta South representative Ian Paton’s own announcement.

Another MLA, former leadership candidate and finance critic Peter Milobar, left earlier this month.

Findlay won the B.C. Conservatives leadership race narrowly in May, and the party has since seen a number of high-profile personnel changes including the departures of president Aisha Estey, vice-president Sharon White and executive director Angelo Isidorou.

Wat’s riding of Richmond-Bridgeport is heavily ethnically Chinese, and the MLA is also Chinese Canadian.

“I had many friends and individuals from the community reach out to me to say they do not believe these false allegations and were shocked no apology was issued,” she said in her statement. “I realized that these allegations had caused real damage to my reputation and had created serious concern within the community.”

Wat said that Findlay told her this week there would be an apology, but none has been issued.

“I cannot continue to sit in a caucus led by someone who has questioned my loyalty without evidence and, when given the opportunity to correct the record, has failed to do so,” she said.

On Tuesday, Findlay held her first news conference as leader before Wat and Bird’s announcements, acknowledging that other MLAs may leave caucus after the departures of Paton and Milobar.

But Findlay said those who are leaving will be doing so without “a vision of prosperity and hope” that the B.C. Conservatives are presenting to the province.

“It means somewhere along the way, they’ve decided that they know better than us where we should be going,” Findlay said.

Bird, Paton and Milobar all cited a divergence of the party’s values under Findlay and their own as a major reason for parting ways.

In her statement, Bird said British Columbians “should be able to firmly reject racism, antisemitism, homophobia and hatred while still having difficult and necessary conversations about immigration, Indigenous reconciliation, addiction, crime, gender, religion and the many other issues on which reasonable people sometimes disagree.”

Bird will sit as an Independent alongside Wat, while Paton and Milobar have said they intend to form a party that offers British Columbians who do not support the Conservatives under Findlay and Premier David Eby’s New Democrats a political home.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 26, 2026.

The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

MLA Teresa Wat quits B.C. Conservatives over ‘distasteful’ Findlay remarks

Our Community