Looking back through my correspondence, I see that on Monday I asked my producer Suzanne whether we could get my West Coast Panel together to talk about trouble in the BC Conservative Party.
Between that first query on Monday and the meeting you see here, which we recorded over the lunch hour Wednesday, Vancouver time, four more MLAs quit the Conservative caucus — Bruce Banman, Á'a:liya Warbus, Donegal Wilson and Scott McInnis — along with Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s chief of staff, Chris Delaney. That brings the total number of caucus departures to nine since Findlay became the party’s leader in May. Here’s one of the many, many news stories on the mess. Here’s a fun news release from Findlay, in which she says the allegations are baseless, without specifying which ones. All allegations, I guess. All allegations are baseless. Stop allegating!
So it’s been the kind of week where I needed a good idea early to have any hope of keeping up with the news. Fortunately, at my Vancouver Road Show in March, we had a great first outing with my West Coast Panel: former federal cabinet minister James Moore; the former veteran political journalist Richard Zussman; and lawyer and podcaster Rachael Segal. Spontaneously, onstage as we were chatting, I suggested we reconvene this stupendous Lotusland brain trust if events ever warranted. Boy, are events warranting.
(The lesson here, obviously, is that if you miss a Paul Wells Road Show, you miss a lot. My Calgary Road Show is on Sept. 28. You can get some of the dwindling number of tickets here.)
We had a brief, action-packed talk. Can the BC Conservative Party recover? “No,” says Zussman. “I think it’s over for Kerry-Lynne Findlay.” Is Moore going to run for leader? “No,” he says. Does Segal have all kinds of information on efforts to stand up a new centre-right party? She sure does! Enjoy.
