Former B.C. Conservative Boultbee crosses to NDP, calling out ‘Trump-style populism’

B.C. Conservative MLA Amelia Boultbee speaks outside the legislature in Victoria, on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Wolfgang Depner

Former Conservative member of the British Columbia legislature Amelia Boultbee, who left the caucus to sit as an Independent, is now a member of the governing New Democrats. 

Boultbee, who won her seat as a B.C. Conservative by narrowly edging out an NDP opponent by a few hundred votes, told a joint news conference with Premier David Eby on Friday that the Conservatives are offering an approach that would “set our province back and leave us more divided.”

“I’ve always believed that politics should be about respecting each other while working to solve problems, and those values have never changed. However, the party I was first elected with has,” she said.

 “What was promised to me and many others as a big-tent party gets smaller by the day. With a new leader more consumed with divisive Donald Trump-style populism than with things that actually matter to people, it’s clearer now than ever that they’re offering no real solutions.”

The move doubles the NDP’s majority in the legislature from one to two.

Boultbee is a former lawyer and Penticton city councillor who has represented the riding of Penticton-Summerland since the 2024 election.

She left the Conservative caucus in October over differences with then-leader John Rustad, calling out what she considered his “failed leadership.”

Eby praised Boultbee’s experience and said her move reflected a chance to to have a strong voice from the South Okanagan

“It will help us deliver better for the Okanagan, but it will also help our whole caucus. Amelia brings significant skills to the table, both through her legal training and background, but also her standing up for the human rights of people that the Conservatives were willing to throw away,” he said.

“She stands on principle, and that’s why I’m glad to stand beside her.”

With Boultbee’s addition, the New Democrats now have 48 members in the provincial legislature and the B.C. Conservatives have 38, with two Greens and five Independents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2026