FORSETH – B.C. conservatives and liberals have lived together since 1952

They and a few other former BC Liberal MLAs, including Peter Milobar, paved the way for us to be where we are now

SUNDAY, ON MY political Facebook page, a question was asked:

Why have BC Liberal MLAs in the BC Conservative Party? Is that not the same as Conservative MPs crossing that floor to be Liberal MPs, in other words changing their colours like a Chameleon, to get back to the pig trough?

Should they not stay within their own values, instead of swapping back and forth from party to party?

It seems this individual really has no sense of how politics in B.C. has worked, going back over the past three quarters of a century. For them, and others wondering the same thing, let’s do a quick refresher.

1) We had the Social Credit Party … an alliance of BOTH Conservatives & Liberals who figured out a way to work together.

2) When that party collapsed, after Vander Zalm’s leadership, B.C. had the option of coming together in one party. In the 1996 provincial election there were two choices; the BC Liberals, or the Reform Party of BC. As we all know the choice by British Columbians, both Liberals and Conservatives, ended up being the BC Liberals.

3) That worked until the leadership of Andrew Wilkinson, who was replaced by Kevin Falcon. Following Falcon’s taking over the leadership of the party it went from a slow — to a massive — collapse just months before the 2024 provincial election.

4) conservatives and liberals in B.C. then once again had a choice of trying to keep the Liberal Party (which by then was BC United) alive or building the surging BC Conservatives. This time, they chose the Conservatives.

Since 1952 BOTH conservative and liberal supporters have had to live together under ONE banner, in the interests of defeating the NDP. For most British Columbian voters (not party members) what it was called has not mattered one iota.

That banner is now the Conservative Party of BC, and as has happened over the past 74 years, it is made up of former Liberal MLAs, and the BC Conservatives who were elected for the first time in 2024 under the leadership of John Rustad, who himself was a former BC Liberal.

Calling ANY of the former BC Liberal MLAs chameleons (all of whom have STRONG conservative values) when they have put British Columbians first is deplorable … and anyone saying so really does not understand the reality of politics in B.C.

Instead, this is what all who are on the right-of-centre, and centre-right, should think about.

Without people like Bruce Banman, Lorne Doerkson, and Elenore Sturko coming over to the party in the first place, the NDP would have won the last election in a landslide, because of a fractured centre-right and right-of-centre.

They and a few other former BC Liberal MLAs, including Peter Milobar, paved the way for us to be where we are now … a solid opposition party that nearly toppled the NDP in the last provincial election.

My recommendation to the individual who posed the comment I shared at the beginning of this commentary, and to anyone who has similar thoughts, is this:

Get behind ALL of our MLAs as they are not only working hard for British Columbia — but also you and all other members of the Conservative Party of BC!

Alan Forseth is a Kamloops resident. For 40+ years he has been active, in a number of capacities, in local, provincial and federal politics, including running as a candidate for the BC Reform Party in the 1996 provincial election, and as a four-time provincial campaign manager.