EDITORIAL – How Peter Milobar became kingmaker in stunning election upset

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

A COUPLE OF WEEKS before Kerri-Lynne Findlay finally quit as leader of the B.C. Conservative party, loyal MLA Lorne Doerkson said in a radio interview he was sticking with her. He wanted, he said, to give her a chance.

Peter Milobar didn’t. Or, at least, he felt he’d given her a chance and she’d failed. He’d left the party in mid-August, saying he and Findlay didn’t share the same values.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Milobar briefly took over CentreBC, then returned to the Conservative ranks after Findlay exited as leader.

When you think about it, the BC Conservatives’ amazing election victory on Saturday night is all due to Milobar. The chain of events shows it very clearly.

He left the party. Over the next few weeks, more and more Conservative MLAs followed him. So many, in fact, that Findlay eventually couldn’t take the heat any more, and at long last saw the writing on the wall.

That opened the door to a couple of late-night meetings between Milobar and Doerkson, and all those MLAs who had flown the coop returned. Doerkson, by all accounts a nice guy that nobody has anything bad to say about, was suddenly the leader.

The Conservatives were united again, just in time to fight David Eby’s ill-conceived election.

So it’s really pretty simple. When Milobar walked out, it encouraged those other defectors to follow him. That caused Findlay’s downfall. When Milobar returned, they followed. When they followed, the party was whole again, rid of the divisive leader that would have taken them to a stunning defeat.

Instead, the Conservatives won in a landslide. Doerkson gets the credit for the amazing victory but if it had been up to him, Findlay would have still been leader when the election was called.

No, it was Milobar who got it done. All his political moves might not have seemed brilliant at the time, and he surely didn’t have the end game that eventually obtained but, in hindsight, brilliant it was.

He’s the true architect of the government we’ll have for at least the next several years.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and was a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.