Nearly five months after Kevin Falcon pulled the plug on his candidates in the provincial election, he remains the leader of B.C. United – but former colleagues are calling for him to resign, so they can fundraise more effectively and rebuild the former B.C. Liberal Party .
“He has now become an impediment to our ability to have a true centrist voice in British Columbia, so he has got to go,” Karin Kirkpatrick said on Thursday.
The former B.C. United MLA and Independent candidate in the 2024 election said the party needs to fundraise to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to candidates, volunteers and vendors for advertising and office leases, and its not easy doing that with Falcon as its leader.
“He’s not the guy to do it. He’s lost the confidence of the people in the party, he’s lost the confidence of the membership of the party,” Kirkpatrick said.
Some former candidates, including Meagan Brame in Esquimalt, did get most of their money back. She never recouped her nomination fee of $500, however, and had to pay a couple hundred dollars to get signs and B.C. United paraphernalia, such as hats and sweatshirts, carted away.
“I think it was just the salt in my wounds that drove me more nuts than anything,” noted Brame Thursday.
Other candidates, like Kevin Acton in Vernon, are still waiting to get paid back for their ads and signs. He ultimately ran as an Independent but estimates he’s owed more than $10,000 from the party, and is suing in small claims court to be reimbursed. “After the party folded, we didn’t hear anything for a while,” said Acton. “Then we heard they were having trouble with finances.”
Meanwhile, Kirkpatrick wants to reignite the former B.C. Liberal Party’s fortunes under a new leader, and provide a centre-right alternative to the B.C. Conservatives.
“Things can change very quickly in politics, as we saw last year with the rise of the Conservative party,” noted political scientist Hamish Telford, suggesting it’s not to soon for the party to mount a rebuilding effort.
Longtime former B.C. United and B.C. Liberal MLA Mike Bernier supports Kirkpatrick’s effort, and agrees Falcon needs to step down as leader. “It’s great to see people like Karin and others that want to try to do the right thing and move the party forward, but it can’t do that as long as Kevin’s clinging on, and I think a lot of us are wondering why he’s doing that.”
CTV News reached out to the party and was not able to get comment from Falcon himself, but received a statement advising that: “When any leader of B.C. United resigns, the constitution requires within 28 days, the date and plans for a leadership vote must be set. This would not only distract from our priority of paying our debt, but it would put B.C. United further in debt as a leadership race involving 40,000 members is costly to run.”
“Calling for, or forcing a leadership race prior to paying the debts is self-servicing and irresponsible,” the statement added. “Kevin Falcon has agreed to remain the leader of the party to avoid the constitutional requirements that would otherwise distract B.C. United from the most important obligation.”
The party also pledged to pay those it still owes money.
