Why Kerry-Lynne Findlay's Resignation Could Push British Columbia Toward an Election
Kerry-Lynne Findlay has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, leaving the party without a permanent leader at a moment when Premier David Eby is openly weighing an early election. The question now is whether the resulting turmoil is enough to move the province to the polls well ahead of its fixed election date.
A Party That Kept Shrinking
Findlay's resignation, reported by Global News, came just hours after Surrey-Serpentine River MLA Linda Hepner left the Conservative caucus. Hepner was the 13th Conservative MLA to leave the party, either voluntarily or after being pushed out, over roughly a month. That reduced the caucus to 25 members. CBC reported the two departures as back-to-back developments.
Findlay said she was stepping down for the good of the party and the province, and that the party "needs a reset." She also said she would remain the Conservative candidate in the coming Abbotsford-Mission by-election.
The resignation was a sharp reversal. Four days earlier, Findlay told reporters and delegates at the Union of BC Municipalities convention, "I'm not going anywhere."
The Opposition Is Also Splitting
The damage to the Conservatives is not just a numbers problem. The Tyee reported that eight former Conservative MLAs joined the new CentreBC party, with Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar named its interim leader. A party that was already losing members is now competing with a breakaway group for the same voters.
That matters because the opposition's credibility depends on looking like a stable alternative. Instead, British Columbia now has an opposition field that is harder to predict than it was a month ago.
A Snap Election Is Now a Live Possibility
British Columbia's fixed election law sets the default date as October 2028, but it does not block an earlier vote. Eby signalled several times in the days before Findlay's resignation that an early election was a real possibility. The Tyee reported that speculation about an imminent vote had already helped bring CentreBC's partnership together.
Global News reported expectations that an election could be called within days. That did not happen, and Eby had made no formal announcement at the time of the reports. An election remains a possibility, not a certainty.
Findlay's departure removes the Conservative Party's leader just as it tries to steady itself. It also gives Eby a concrete argument for going to voters: an opposition in visible disarray. Whether he uses that argument depends on his own political calculations, but the path to an early election is now more open than it was before the resignation.