The News Rundown

B.C. Conservatives, CentreBC reunite to fight NDP's election call

What a week it's been in BC Politics. Between last week's episode and today, the BC Conservative Party experienced a rapid, historic collapse following intense internal divisions under Kerry-Lynne Findlay. The party shrank dramatically from 38 MLAs to 24 MLAs in a matter of weeks, and numerous allegations of blackmail and internal caucus strife surrounded the party.
On Friday last week, BC Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay expelled several high-profile MLAs: former party leader John Rustad, former interim leader Trevor Halford, and outspoken MLA Claire Rattee, bringing the party's caucus losses to 12 in just a few short weeks.
The same day, 8 former Conservative MLAs announcing they are joining the new centrist party called CentreBC, led by former Conservative finance critic and leadership contender Peter Milobar - who took over as leader of the party just recently.
On Saturday night, an internal faction within the BC Conservative Party caucus reportedly presented Findlay with a strict ultimatum: resign as party leader by midnight or an embarrassing audio recording of her husband would be leaked to the public.
The recording featured Findlay’s husband, Surrey South MLA Brent Chapman. According to party sources, the audio file captured Chapman speaking in a "threatening manner", reportedly directed toward internal party rivals or those unsupportive of his wife's leadership.
This threat emerged amidst a series of damaging leaks orchestrated by an anonymous X account known as The Findlay Files. The account had spent weeks systematically posting internal caucus audio and private chats to expose deep fractures and severe infighting within the party organization.
The explicit goal of the leaks was to expose what the account owners framed as the corruption and incompetence of the Findlay-Chapman leadership. Once the account delivered the ultimate "husband tape" ultimatum on September 19, forcing Findlay’s official resignation the next day, the core purpose of the account was fulfilled, and the owner of the account happily shut it down.
Sunday was when things really kicked off. MLA Linda Hepner resigned from the Conservative caucus, and just a few hours later, Findlay resigned abruptly as leader, just days after vowing to stay on. Faced with the threat of the tape dropping—and already reeling from the defection and expulsion of 14 MLAs—Findlay chose to succumb to the pressure. She officially resigned the next day, Sunday, September 20, citing the personal toll and attacks on her family. Shortly after her departure, Chapman also left the BC Conservatives to join a breakaway populist party called OneBC.
That same day, a massive scandal surfaced when it was revealed that a senior Conservative party official had hired a private investigator to spy on the party’s own members. The investigator was tasked with gathering negative information and monitoring 14 specific targets, including current Conservative MLAs, party executives (such as former party president Aisha Estie), NDP staffers, Victoria-based political reporter Rob Shaw.
Party sources confirmed the investigator was hired to unmask who was running an anonymous account on X called The Findlay Files. The account had been aggressively leaking highly damaging internal audio and documentation exposing party infighting.
While Findlay claimed she had zero knowledge of the operation, the revelation that the party structure was actively tracking its own politicians caused an immediate collapse of internal trust.
Following Findlay’s forced exit, Independent MLA Tara Armstrong publicly blasted the BC Conservatives, stating the organization had officially "become the party of blackmail" and was fully captured by a corrupt political establishment. Accusations flew from both sides: moderate MLAs accused Findlay’s inner circle of using McCarthyesque loyalty tests, intimidation, and character assassination to force out anyone who didn't align with her shift toward extreme, populist politics.
The instability was compounded by financial scandals involving senior staff members hired under Findlay's brief tenure. An audio recording surfaced of a terminated staffer, Apollo Chung, explicitly demanding a $500,000 payout while speaking of an intent to "steal everything". Concurrently, the party's operations director was terminated after separate leaked recordings exposed rants regarding the alleged misuse of internal party funds.
Since taking over on late Sunday September 20, 2026, interim leader Lorne Doerkson has successfully re-unified the fractured BC Conservative Party and reversed an exodus of legislators just as a snap provincial election campaign gets underway. In just a few days, Doerkson has transformed a chaotic opposition caucus into a unified team that has surged ahead in recent polling.
Doerkson immediately extended an olive branch to the dozens of MLAs who had quit or been expelled during the previous leadership's tenure. His efforts brought almost all former members back into the party fold. On Monday, John Rustad, Scott McInnis, Trevor Halford, Claire Rattée, and Linda Hepner returned to the Conservative caucus. The day after that, Findlay's husband Brent Chapman crosses the floor from the Conservatives to OneBC. Trying to capitalize on the turmoil, Eby announces a snap election to be held on October 24, 2026. After the election call, independent Brennan Day and all CentreBC MLAs except for Elenore Sturko rejoin the Conservatives.
This brought the party back up to 36 seats from the 22 it had the day that Findlay resigned.
This brings us up to today, where interim leader Lorne Doerkson was photographed at a BC Lions game with former BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark. It seems that the big tent push for the Conservative Party is back on again - we'll see if it succeeds.

Why walk away? That was the line that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith uttered last Saturday while addressing the Alberta and the West Assembly, an online forum.
The gathering was co-chaired by Reform Party founder Preston Manning and former BC Premier Gordon Campbell.
The video of a tearful Danielle Smith was shared in Canadian press wire service stories highlighting Smith’s telling of where Alberta stands.
Smith’s presence at the forum was a telling of the reasons of why Alberta should stay in Canada.
Tearfully Smith said, “for years it felt as though Ottawa was working to shut our economy down. We watched pipelines cancelled. We watched a law passed that Albertans came to call the no new pipelines act. We watched an emissions cap aimed at one industry, ours, one region, Alberta. And electricity regulations that would have made it hard to keep the lights on in one of the coldest places in the country.”
Smith went back to Trudeau’s words of phasing out the oil sands, asking “when their livelihood is treated as something to be phased out, some begin to ask a painful question, does this country actually want us?”
A lot of media has framed the referendum as a binary choice. Either remain in Canada with the status quo or leave. The reality though and this has only just started being covered in the media: option 2 does not inherently mean Alberta will leave Canada, that is not on the ballot this October.
What is on the ballot is a question to either keep the status quo or start the legally binding process of having a referendum that can be binding.
The conference organizers put together a series of options for what may come after October 19.
Pursuing specific demands from Alberta/Saskatchewan governments and Western business leaders for federal action.
Expanding provincial authority in areas of jurisdiction (the UCP’s position)
Full independence for Alberta, or independence plus closer ties to the United States.
Remain and then what? Staying in Canada while defining concrete next steps beyond the status quo.
While a lot of the discussion has surrounded Danielle Smith’s emotional plea and the soundbites that followed, what was not discussed was the origins of the conference.
In a piece special to the Globe and Mail, Preston Manning, outlined why the conference was taking place. A great portion of Canadians have lost faith in democracy or are not taking part.
The hope is that the virtual assembly, its speakers, and the discussion surrounding it can provide a path forward for Alberta after October 19th.
Preston Manning founded the Reform Party under the slogan, “the West wants in”. The Reform Party and Canadian Alliance later dominated western Canada.
There were hopes amongst many that with the Reform and Alliance MPs being part of the initial Conservative Party of Canada government that there could be wholesale change.
But governments changed, regulations came in, and Parliamentary supremacy (a hallmark of the Westminster system) undid any goodwill that had been built.
Manning in his article also highlighted a disturbing statistic from a recent national survey by Abacus: “47 per cent of those Canadians surveyed between the ages of 18 to 29 say ‘a strong leader who does not have to bother with Parliament and elections would be a good way of governing.’”
While on media tour promoting the assembly he said, “If getting the West in didn’t work, trying to get it out will get the attention.”
Going forward it is incumbent on the federal government to take note of this situation, declare the new west pipeline in the national interest, and even after October 19th, continue the process to bring Alberta and the west back into the fold.
While the media this week instead chose to focus on Danielle Smith’s emotions, a large discussion about the place of the west could have instead been discussed in relation to the Alberta and the West Assembly.
Supplementals:

Will Eby's early election gamble pay off or backfire in B.C.? Here's what history tells us

On Tuesday, September 22, 2026, BC NDP Leader and Premier David Eby officially dissolved the provincial legislature and triggered a snap provincial election for October 24, 2026. The call comes less than two years into his active mandate, a strategic political gamble designed to catch the opposition in a moment of historic weakness that has instead triggered immediate public backlash.
While the mainstream narrative has heavily relied on Eby’s framing of the election as an emergency defense against a U.S. trade war, an objective analysis reveals a highly calculated act of political opportunism. The discrepancy between the government’s stated reasons and the underlying political realities highlights several key factors.
Premier Eby has focused his initial campaign rhetoric heavily on external geopolitical factors. In his first public appearance, he used the name "Trump" 19 separate times to frame the election as a necessary mandate to protect B.C.'s workforce from escalating U.S. trade tariffs. Eby introduced a "firebreak" metaphor, arguing that British Columbians must decide between an NDP government that stands up to American economic pressures or a Conservative opposition that he claims seeks to import "MAGA-style politics".
Political analysts and opposition leaders have pointed out significant logical gaps in using a foreign trade dispute to justify dissolving a domestic legislature two years early. A provincial government has no constitutional authority or diplomatic jurisdiction to negotiate international trade treaties, which are strictly the purview of the federal government in Ottawa.
Data released by the Angus Reid Institute shows that international trade ranks at the very bottom (15%) of actual voter anxieties. Instead, the electorate is overwhelmingly concerned with immediate domestic crises, specifically the cost of living (59%) and healthcare access (42%).
The true timeline exposes a direct correlation with the internal collapse of the official opposition. Just 48 hours prior to the election call, BC Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay abruptly resigned following a wave of caucus defections, leaving the party temporarily leaderless under an interim figure. Eby called the snap election specifically to catch the right-wing opposition entirely uncoordinated, unstaffed, and financially unprepared for a province-wide campaign.
Opposition parties criticized Eby's decision. B.C. Conservative interim Leader Lorne Doerkson characterized it as a "cheap, opportunistic political move," while Green Party Leader Emily Lowan called it an unnecessary decision that would bring "yet more instability."
A high-stakes by-election was legally scheduled for September 26. Internal polling reportedly suggested the NDP was poised for a heavy defeat in the riding. Calling a general election rendered the by-election completely moot, allowing the government to dodge a highly visible public rebuke.
In the days leading up to the call, the NDP government engaged in a sudden flurry of massive funding announcements. This included fast-tracking delayed infrastructure, ordering new BC Ferries vessels, and announcing a sudden pause on a planned Provincial Sales Tax (PST) expansion—projects that were previously paused due to stated budget constraints. Rushing the election allows the NDP to run on these fresh promises before the long-term fiscal deficits of these announcements can be scrutinized by independent auditors.
The timing of the snap provincial call directly overlaps with B.C.’s active municipal election campaigns, culminating in local votes on October 17. The Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) had explicitly petitioned the Premier to respect the fixed election calendar to avoid logistical chaos, split voter attention, and volunteer burnout. By ignoring local governments, critics argue the NDP prioritized immediate partisan advantage over democratic stability at the municipal level.
Early data indicates that the strategic gamble has triggered what pollsters call a "ballot backlash." The Angus Reid Institute reports that 65% of British Columbians believe the election was called purely out of political self-interest rather than provincial necessity.This frustration has caused a significant shift in voting intentions just days into the campaign, with BC NDP Support at 35% (Down 6 points) and the BC Conservative Support: 43% (Up 6 points)
Rather than locking in another majority, the early call has catalyzed a rapid re-unification of the conservative movement under interim leader Lorne Doerkson, leaving the province in a statistical dead heat as the campaign formally begins.
When making his decision, Eby might have been considering his predecessor John Horgan. Horgan and the B.C. NDP formed a minority government — thanks to a supply and confidence agreement with the Greens — after the 2017 election. The then premier rode a wave of popularity from his government's handling of the pandemic to a majority in a snap election in the fall of 2020.
Horgan wasn't the only premier to gamble with an early election call at the height of the pandemic. New Brunswick's Blaine Higgs took his Progressive Conservatives from a minority to a majority in the same year. Higgs touted the importance of stability when he pitched himself to voters only two years after becoming premier.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford called an early election using a similar line to Eby in 2025, saying he needed a strong mandate to address Trump and his tariff war. Ford would win a historic third majority government, even though he called the election more than a year ahead of schedule.
Ford isn't the only premier to cite economic upheaval to call a snap election. Former Quebec premier Jean Charest cited the 2008 financial crisis as a reason for going to the polls just over a year after winning the 2007 election. The gamble paid off for Charest, whose Liberals went from a minority to a majority government.
Former prime minister Jean Chrétien twice called early elections during his tenure, but it was his second gamble that was seen as a major payoff.
Chrétien called a vote in 2000 when polls indicated the Liberals had a sizable lead in Ontario. The Canadian Alliance, created out of the Reform Party in an effort to appeal to voters outside of Western Canada, had only selected Stockwell Day as its leader a few months before. The Liberals would expand their majority government in the 2000 vote, winning 100 out of 103 seats in Ontario while making gains in Quebec.
Adding to the novelty of Premier David Eby’s move to dissolve the legislature Tuesday is the fact the official Opposition BC Conservatives is without a member-elected leader. The Conservatives’ campaign will be led by interim leader Lorne Doerkson and questions remain about his future role following the Oct. 24 vote.
However, neither of these unique situations means Eby does not have the authority to ask the electorate to choose the next government, said Philippe Lagassé, a political scientist at Carleton University and expert on constitutional democracy.
The immediate uproar—at least on social media—from NDP opponents points more to an unethical decision on the part of the premier, which Lagassé acknowledged has merit in calling the decision “dodgy” and “democratically disgusting” for its political opportunism.
“It clearly does appear to be an effort to take advantage of a particular situation within the Conservative party.
“But that's a political thing and it's an ethical thing, right? So, do we want our political leaders and our first ministers to be fair in how they use their powers? Yes. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that the rules themselves prevent them from acting unfairly or seizing a moment,” Lagassé said.
Lagassé said debating the ethics runs the risk of creating a laundry list of prohibitive scenarios “that are not really constitutional questions” for Lt.-Gov. Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia.
Calling an election with an interim opposition leader has occurred before elsewhere although it is “unusual,” said Lagassé, adding this is still not a valid reason under the Constitution to prevent a dissolution of the legislature.
UBC political scientist Stewart Prest also described the situation as “a little bit dodgy” and “unusual,” but he notes the Conservatives have had ample time to organize themselves under a leader and failed to do so.
“The norm in our politics is for a kind of sportsmanship around letting the leader emerge for the opposition party and that's a little different here because it's the second leadership vacuum the Conservatives have had in the space of less than six months.
“But it does feed into the impression even more so that the NDP are ‘playing politics’ here,” Prest said.
Yet another political quandary that may emerge from this election is that should his party be able to form government after Oct. 24, Doerkson would become premier but not necessarily retain that role because of the party’s own constitution and bylaws, as of today.
The party’s constitution currently requires that the board call a special leadership election within 12 months of a leader resigning, as is the case with Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s Sept. 20 resignation.
And, notably, an interim leader may not be a leadership candidate in a leadership election—a matter acknowledged by previous interim leader Trevor Halford after John Rustad resigned.
There are provisions for a leadership review in the event of a lost election but no such provisions in the event an interim leader carries the party to victory in a general election.
Of course, any leadership review and subsequent member vote could result in Doerkson winning and taking on the role permanently, if he’s willing.
Were Doerkson to resign or be removed by party members through a leadership vote, the new leader would become premier-designate, as was the case for Eby in November 2022.
However, on Wednesday afternoon the party issued an unsigned and unnamed statement from the board on to the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, stating, in part: "When Mr. Doerkson leads the party to victory on Oct. 24, he will remain leader. The board will pursue the appropriate means under the party's constitution and bylaws and the Societies Act to give effect to this intention."
What remains unclear is how the board will effect these changes and will it do so unliterally without the input of members.
Without a member-driven vote Doerkson would be acclaimed by the board in similar fashion to how Eby became premier-designate in 2022, which drew political pushback from opponents.
Prest said: “There's a lot of hypotheticals here. But in this case, it looks like the Conservatives will have some sort of leadership race, even if Mr. Doerkson wins, and then it will be an open question, and I honestly don't know the answer if the bylaws specify whether he would be able to stay on as premier—if he were interested in serving to be the permanent leader—or he may be content to be a kind of custodian for the office until a new leader is chosen. It's an unusual situation. One could imagine in other parties without such a strict constitution, Mr. Doerkson would just become the leader.”
Prest said the election call has clearly invigorated or “short-circuited” the Conservatives in rallying together, which comes at an immediate disadvantage to the NDP.
“Mr. Eby accomplished something that didn't seem possible, which was to reunite the Conservatives yet again,” said Prest said.
So in just under a week, BC has now had to face an early election, with the NDP gambling on opposition disarray to benefit them, playing politics at a time of provincial economic turmoil that they created.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

StatCan Revisions Erase Canada's Reported Population Decline

This week we were hit with a deluge of headlines showcasing that our population growth has slowed.
“Canada’s population growth just hit an 80-year low”
“Canada’s population growth continues its decline”
“Canada Population Growth Falls to Lowest Rate Since World War I”
Initially news media reports highlighted the population growth rate decline with the total population reaching 41,798,407 people on July 1 which is a 0.5% increase from the previous year.
The rate discussions continued around the quarterly results being the lowest since COVID times.
Statistics Canada credited “changing international migration trends” with not only the slowdown in the population growth rate, but also with the average age in Canada increasing over the past two years. As of July 1, 2026, the average Canadian was 42.1 years old.
They also highlighted a drop in non-permanent residents of 154,614 between July 2025 and July 2026. On Oct. 1, 2025, non-permanent residents were 7.2 per cent of the total population. This was mostly led by a massive decline in the number of study permit holders (declined by 140,827) and work-and-study permit holders (81,163 drop).
The reality though is that none of it is true.
StatsCan revised the numbers to show that an additional 301,008 people were added to Canada’s April 1, 2026 population estimate, this was the largest revision.
The agency regularly revises their calculations but this revision was particularly large.
Every September, StatCan revises its population estimates as fuller data comes in. This year it updated every quarter from the third quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2026.
First they revised the 2023 to mid-2025 numbers downward. The biggest cut was 138,629 people at January 1, 2025. The population boom was a bit smaller than first reported.
Second they revised the late 2025 and early 2026 numbers upward by 148,338 at October 1, 2025, 244,617 at January 1, 2026, and 301,008 at April 1, 2026.
Most of the change came from non-permanent residents including temporary workers, international students, asylum claimants and their families.
The June estimates showed the number of non-permanent residents falling by 590,569 from its October 2024 peak. The revised figures show a fall of 185,636 over the same period, less than a third as large. There are now 2,779,774 non-permanent residents.
StatsCan was aware that something like this could happen. In their one update they noted that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada was granting more permit extensions and taking longer to process them.
Ontario accounts for almost half of the April 2026 revision, at +140,304 people. British Columbia follows at +57,263 and Quebec at +37,592. Every province and territory was revised up.
Overall international migration is driving population growth. Net international migration added 67,384 people. Natural increase added 12,959 people.
The bottom line from a RBC Economics report, this revision has impacts.
The changes significantly impact how some economic data looks in hindsight—for example, per-capita GDP growth looks less firm over the last year with the upward population revisions. This has impacts on things like total GDP growth and employment growth.
The broader economic narrative does no change.
Canada’s population doesn’t look like it will decline outright but the growth rate is still the smallest on record.
Was it malice?
No. When StatsCan counts things there are always variances. Even in things like employment numbers there’s an error range that’s seldomly reported.
Was this an error in this case? It doesn’t look like it was a mathematical calculation error.
It looks like upon final counting for the year the government gave new numbers, specifically highlighting the delay in processing more permit applications and ultimately taking longer to process them.
The issue though is that while some outlets, like the Globe and Mail, addressed the issue briefly, a lot of the news stories about the population decrease and rate slowing down were not corrected or amended.
The question going forward is whether or not the media will address this and what the official line from the government will be on population growth.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“If getting the West in didn’t work, trying to get it out will get the attention.” - Preston Manning on Alberta’s October 19, 2026 Referendum

Word of the Week

assembly - a group of people gathered together for a common purpose, or the process of putting different parts together to build a complete object

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Show Data

Episode Title: Assembling the Team
Teaser: The BC Conservative upheaval leads to Findlay’s resignation, an assembly highlights Alberta’s role within Canada, and David Eby calls a snap election for October 24th. Also, new Statistics Canada numbers reverse Canada’s population decline.
Production Code: WC-487-2026-09-26
Recorded Date: September 26, 2026
Release Date: September 27, 2026
Duration: 1:07:53
Edit Notes: None

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX