Kerry-Lynne Findlay is no longer leading BC’s Conservative party, yet remains on the ballot in a byelection tainted by bribery accusations.
Elections BC confirmed in an email to Canada’s National Observer that Findlay is still running as a candidate in the Abbotsford-Mission byelection on Saturday, Sept. 26. Candidates can only withdraw from the ballot up to 48 hours before advance voting, which began on Friday, Sept. 18.
But in the days since those first ballots were cast, the lawyer and former federal cabinet minister’s political future was drastically curtailed. On Sunday, Sept. 20, after months of intrigue (which mostly played out on X) and turmoil that saw the Conservative Party of BC bleed over a dozen MLAs and long-time staff, Findlay decided to quit.
“There comes a moment when leadership requires you to consider not simply whether you can continue a fight, but whether continuing that fight serves the people and the cause you entered public life to serve,” she wrote in a statement announcing her resignation.
“I have reached that moment: I will not allow an internal battle over my leadership to become a continuing distraction from the work British Columbians need a strong opposition to do.”
The decision follows speculation BC Premier David Eby could call a snap election in the coming days as his political opponents deal with the turmoil. The NDP have a one-seat majority and recent polls show the NDP sitting well above the BC Conservatives and Centre BC, a new centre-right party that has welcomed many of the MLAs who defected due to Findlay’s leadership.
On Monday, former BC Conservative leader John Rustad told reporters that the BC Conservatives and Centre BC were holding talks, and he estimated there was a 95 per cent chance they would merge the parties.
It was a dramatic pivot. Days earlier, Findlay told hundreds of mayors, municipal councillors and provincial politicians at the Union of BC Municipalities that she would not resign because doing so would betray the “27,000 party members [who] voted for me as leader” and supported her “common sense vision for change.”
Since becoming leader at the end of May, Findlay leaned into her brand as a “true conservative,” hiring a suite of staffers known for their association with racist ideologues, anti-abortion activism and ties with Alberta’s separatist movement.
Two of them — former chief of staff Chris Delaney and former caucus manager Apollo Chung — left their roles after anonymous X accounts leaked damning audio recordings that allegedly included them. Canada’s National Observer couldn’t independently verify the recordings’ authenticity.
Then, during an emergency caucus meeting last Wednesday, members of the BC Conservative Caucus learned a senior party executive hired a private investigator to gather information about 12 people, including sitting MLAs and former party executives.
The list includes Angelo Isidorou, a key architect of the party’s unexpected revival in 2022, and Amelia Boultbee, a former BC Conservative MLA who decided to sit as an independent in 2025 before joining the NDP in July.
Byelection controversy
But it is a third recording, leaked on X by an anonymous account, that is directly related to Findlay’s electoral ambitions in Abbotsford-Mission. The unverified audio clip allegedly caught Findlay offering caucus members a job if they gave up their seat so she could run — which would be an illegal act under Canada’s Criminal Code.
It emerged after former BC Conservative MLA Ian Paton told reporters Findlay offered him a job with pay equal to his MLA salary if he left his seat (he refused).
Cosmin Dzsurdza, the party’s director of communications, told Canada’s National Observer in an email at the time that “on July 2nd and 3rd, the Conservative Party of BC Caucus held a confidential meeting, MLAs only, in Penticton to discuss caucus business … Although unable to determine authenticity, it appears that an anonymous X account has posted a surreptitious recording of a response to a question about future plans by our elected Leader [sic], the Hon. Kerry-Lynne Findlay.”
A few weeks after that meeting, then-MLA for Abbotsford-Mission, Reann Gasper, gave up her seat and was hired by the party; she is currently its chief of staff. Findlay, who was still the BC Conservative leader at the time, subsequently said she would run in the byelection for Gasper’s seat.
Canada’s National Observer asked the BC Conservative party whether Findlay will be welcome to sit as a BC Conservative if she wins the race. It did not respond by deadline.
September 21st 2026
