u/Election2015Verity

If you are a member of the BC Conservative Party, registered to vote before the April 18th deadline, and haven't yet cast your ballot, I hope my own reasoning might help with your decision

🥇Why I voted for Yuri Fulmer As My #1 Pick

1.He’s actually uniting the real conservative movement. He’s the only major candidate who reached out to Dallas Brodie and OneBC instead of shunning her like the old guard did. They signed a formal “Unite the Right” agreement: if Fulmer wins the leadership, OneBC won’t run candidates in most ridings (they’ll only contest about 5), and Brodie’s team will support the Conservatives to avoid vote-splitting. In return, OneBC gets a real voice and some guaranteed seats in a future government. This is huge because Dallas was the first one with the guts to call out the DRIPA mess, the residential school cash grab, and the endless reconciliation industry — and she got kicked out of the party for it. Yuri recognized she was right when everyone else treated her like a pariah. That kind of leadership can finally bring the populist and freedom-focused voters back into the fold instead of splitting the right and handing wins to the NDP.

2. He’s serious about protecting private property rights. He’s been very clear that he will immediately repeal DRIPA and enshrine strong property rights into law so this uncertainty never happens again. He’s said: “I will repeal DRIPA and enshrine property rights into law. But that’s only Step One. As Premier, I would immediately stop the voluntary transfer of land and cash payments to First Nations Bands while major questions around Aboriginal title, private property, and resource development remain unresolved.” He understands that Aboriginal title claims are scaring off investment and threatening homeowners’ equity — and he’s willing to take a hard stand instead of the usual vague “reconciliation” talk.

3. He’s a successful businessman who built a real empire from the ground up — started clearing tables at A&W, ended up owning dozens of restaurants across Western Canada (A&W, Mr. Mike’s, Pizza Hut franchises) before founding his own investment firm. He’s not a career politician — he’s someone who’s actually created jobs, met payrolls, and balanced budgets in the real world. He wants to get resource development moving again so we can actually create jobs and revenue instead of chasing endless deficits. He’s also been very clear about stopping the slow slide back into old BC Liberal territory and preventing a Liberal / BC United establishment takeover of the party.

🥈Why I voted for Kerry-Lynne Findlay As My #2 Pick

1. She actually lived the fight against aggressive land claims. She took the Musqueam all the way to the Supreme Court as a homeowner when they tried to jack up lease rates and wipe out people’s equity. That’s real-world credibility on the issues we’re facing with DRIPA.

2. She’s a proven Conservative with real federal cabinet experience — she served as Minister of National Revenue and Associate Minister of National Defence in Stephen Harper’s government. She’s been consistent on repealing DRIPA and SOGI for a long time, not just jumping on the bandwagon recently like some others. She frames it as a core conservative issue, not a sudden conversion.

3. She brings serious experience without the heavy establishment stink. She’s lived as a single mom dealing with these housing and land issues firsthand, which gives her a grounded perspective that career politicians often lack. She talks about it from personal experience fighting for regular families against powerful interests.

❌Why I did NOT vote for Caroline Elliott:

1. During COVID, she criticized the NDP for not being tough enough on vaccines and suggested they should have pushed mandates harder — especially in schools, where she called kids the biggest group of unvaccinated people and referred to schools as a “compliance space.” That’s a hard no for me.

2. The Juno debate mess. She agreed to the debate, her team bought up almost all the tickets to pack the room, then bailed when Juno moved it to a bigger venue so it wouldn’t be stacked. Looks like she didn’t want to face a real crowd. Premier David Eby publicly criticized Juno News as a “far-right-wing news outlet that promotes white supremacy” and “white supremacist views.” He expressed disappointment that Conservative candidates were participating in a debate hosted by them. He then specifically praised Caroline Elliott for skipping it: “I’ll take a moment to recognize that Caroline Elliott has opted out of this debate. I think that’s the right decision." Eby added that he hoped the Conservative Party, if Elliott were elected leader, would commit to no longer advertising on or supporting the platform. Seems like Caroline Elliot finds herself nicely aligned with NDP positions when she is not in front of cameras.

3. She’s way too tied to the old BC United/Liberal machine. She’s Kevin Falcon’s sister-in-law, was a BC United VP and candidate, and only recently got tough on SOGI and DRIPA. Back when Kevin Falcon was defending SOGI, she publicly called his pro-SOGI comments a reflection of “the reasonable views of parents” and criticized social conservatives who opposed it as creating too much polarization. She described opposition to SOGI as “abhorrent” in some cases. Now she says she wants to repeal it. Same pattern with DRIPA, she is now one of the strongest voices calling for repeal. However, her long history inside the BC Liberal/United ecosystem (the party that supported and passed DRIPA) makes the shift look recent to many critics. She claims she has opposed the radical elements for a while (citing her PhD work), but the timing of her harder public stance aligns with joining the Conservative race.

❌Why I did NOT vote for Ian Black:

1. He talks a good game on banning extreme language like “unceded” or “stolen land” in school land acknowledgments, but then turns around and does the full ritual himself. At a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade event, he acknowledged the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh — the exact kind of thing his platform criticizes. Classic hedging.

2. He’s old BC Liberal establishment. He was a cabinet minister under Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark back in the day, including roles in jobs, tourism, and small business. A lot of us are worried he’d turn the party back into BC United 2.0 with the same moderate approach that got us here.

3. He seems too cautious and “big tent” on the big cultural fights, especially around DRIPA and Indigenous policy. He’s admitted that repealing DRIPA would create a big mess and talks more about broad reconciliation and optimism than taking a hard stand to protect private property rights and stop the taxpayer-funded giveaways. We need more backbone right now, not careful balancing acts.

❌Why I did NOT vote for Peter Milobar:

1. He skipped the important Juno debate before the membership cutoff, just like Elliott. Not a great sign that he wants to engage with the real base.

2. He carries a lot of old-guard moderate baggage. Even though he now says he wants to repeal DRIPA and SOGI, he voted for DRIPA in 2019 as a BC Liberal and has a long record of more cautious positions. He has publicly pushed back against residential school “denialism” in his own party and emphasized a more careful, balanced approach to reconciliation. On SOGI, he’s talked about “age appropriateness” and still protecting certain elements rather than a full-throated defense of parental rights and getting it out completely. Doesn’t scream “fighter” on the core issues.

3. Too many insider controversies. His campaign got hit with a $7,500 fine for missing a $40,000 payment deadline (blamed on Canada Post), there were issues with the party database, and he’s had to deal with questions about his wife’s Indigenous background and past work with the Kamloops Indian Band creating potential conflict-of-interest optics on DRIPA and reconciliation issues. Just feels like more of the same old politics.