Victoria/Fraser Valley – Opinion from BC NDP re: Findlay elevates Trump supporting MLAs in ongoing BC Liberal leadership purge
Kerry-Lynne Findlay has doubled down on her extreme and divisive approach with a new caucus leadership team that elevates pro-Trump MLAs while expelling more moderate MLAs.
Findlay appointed Heather Maahs as Official Opposition Leader, who said “Eby needs to comply,” with Trump’s demands following the announcement of tariffs. Maahs was one of 5 MLAs who voted against denouncing Trump’s tariffs.
Last spring Maahs invited a far-right social conservative group which opposes reproductive choice and same sex marriage to the BC Legislature and highlighted their alignment with BC Conservative policy positions: “Many of their stances align with our common sense approach as the Conservative Party of BC.”
Now demoted former BC Liberal Trevor Halford rejected those claims at the time.
Findlay decided Halford wasn’t even worth a “Stakeholder Relations Lieutenant” title, but that fellow South Surrey MLA Brent Chapman was. Chapman is Findlay’s husband, one of the five MLAs who voted against condemning Trump, and once called Muslim children “little inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs.”
House Leader Áʼa:líya Warbus was demoted and replaced by Sheldon Clare, who has defended the death rate of children at residential schools and equated gun control with the internment of Japanese-Canadians in World War II.
Garry Begg, B.C. NDP Caucus Chair:
“Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s choice of Heather Maahs as Opposition Leader shows that she’s doubling down on her divisive and extreme approach. She’s continuing to purge anyone she considers Liberal while promoting pro-Trump MLAs who think British Columbians should roll over and comply with Donald Trump’s demands. British Columbians don’t want this divisive, U.S.-style politics in our province.”
