The BC Conservatives have FOUR candidates for leader

For such a long time it looked like no one was going to step forward to bc leader of the BC Conservatives, but now after the close of nominations and vetting by the party there are four candidates

• Dan Brooks - the leader that resigned in January of this year.  I can not find any online presences for his campaign.
• Chloé Ellis -  She is still in her 20s, though that does not mean she is any less qualified to be leader than the guys running.  Her website the best of the lot but still nothing much there.
• Konrad Pimiskern - It is hard to get past the fact he is using webpage that looks like it was made in 1999.  His website tells me nothing
• Jay Cross - a PhD statistician who seems to mainly focus on the lack of fundraising by the BC Conservatives.   No details of how this would happen or any details on how he would act as leader.

Who should the Conservatives choose?  

Jay Cross and Konrad Pimiskern do not strike me as people that have any skills to a function as a useful leader.   I really do not get why either one is running.

Dan Brooks will have to overcome resigning and then wanting to come back.   I have also been told that the Brooks era of the party was not exactly the most open organization, various good people were frozen.  Some of these people have political experience and are very ethical conservatives.   If the party chooses him it is sort of like an admission that 2016 was not important for the party.  Dan Brooks would be a signal to the media the party is not serious.

This more or less leaves Chloé Ellis.   I know very little about her.  She ran for the federal Conservatives in 2015 in the riding of New Westminster Burnaby.  Win or lose she will benefit simply by running and building up a following.   She is also the only candidate for which I know the names of anyone that is a supporter.

What has happened to the BC Conservatives?

In early 2012 the BC Conservatives were on the rise    They had an MLA, John Van Dongen, that had crossed from the Liberals.   The party leader was a well known former federal MP, John Cummins.   By in the fall of 2012 the party shot themselves in the foot and did not do very well in the 2013 election.

The party has had three years since then to build something up.   The latest polling even shows there is an appetite for a party on the right.   There seemed to be some life in the party and the new leader Dan Brooks had some energy but he resigned this spring.

The party is holding a leadership convention in mid September but no one seems interested in being the leader.

There is a need and desire in this province for a real right wing party but there is little chance the BC Conservatives will be that party.

http://bcconservative.ca/

Detailed results from the 2014 BC Conservative Party leadership election

Here is a link to the PDF of the detailed results of the 2014 BC Conservative Leadership vote.

I will do my own analysis of these numbers later.  For now this is here for anyone interested to review the details

BC Conservative Leadership Debate in Victoria

I went to the BC Conservative leadership debate held in Victoria on Wednesday February 19th and here are my impressions and thoughts.

In total 60 people came out, that includes the candidates and their entourages.   Certainly not a big crowd but better than what most fringe parties have been able to achieve in this province.   The crowd was older than average and I think most of the people were over age 65, at 48 I was still in the young part of the audience.

Here is a short clip of the room



I only recognized one media person in the audience, Andrew MacLeod of the Tyee.  Overall the race has seen little coverage in the media and is sort of quietly going along.  Given how badly the party did in the 2013 election, it is not really surprising they are not getting more media for this race.

I generally avoid leadership debates because normally candidates will say very little about what makes them a better leader than the other person and certainly it is not likely you would see negative campaigning.   I really went out of a morbid curiosity to see how small the crowd would be but I was surprised at how much sniping there was between the candidates, well more by one candidate than the other.

Rick Peterson made a number of fairly direct and veiled attacks against Dan Brooks, it felt like that was one his agendas for the evening.   He mentioned the party should focus on the coast and the interior and north.  He pointed out that the the BCCP got a $50,000 donation from someone in Vanderhoof after Dan Brooks talked about wanting the part not be behold to large corporate donors.  He did not think the Dan Brooks' idea of a shadow cabinet was a good one.  He did not like Brooks' idea that the party should have their headquarters in Kamloops.  He said it was great that Dan Brooks has a vision but that it is more important to know who is backing each candidate.

I could see Dan Brooks wanted to try and respond back and do the same to Rick Peterson and it felt reactive and not planned.  It will be interesting to see how responds to the attacks from Peterson.

Overall by the end of the evening I felt like Rick Peterson was trying sell me something while Dan Brooks sounded much more genuine.  Rick Peterson I think had practiced in detail what he wanted to say whereas Dan Brooks I do not think did so.  

Dan Brooks seems to have decent natural speaking skills.  He actually dropping in a Shakespeare quote by Polonius from Hamlet:
 to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
This was in the context of Dan Brooks speaking of the importance of honour in politics because he sees honour as being honest to yourself and that is a higher degree of honesty.

Dan Brooks came across as slightly naive and inexperienced but Rick Peterson name dropped so much that  the advantage he should have had with this was muted.  One of my biggest concerns about Dan Brooks is the potential that he is a bit tea party lite - he used the line "slippery slope to socialism" and talked about being part of a liberty loving movement.

Rick Peterson tended to be unrealistic about the BC Conservatives - 125,000 members in two years and 60 to 65 seats in 2017.     This is a party that not only did not win a single seat in 2013, they were not even close in any of the races.   He also seems to believe the path to power is through the right leader and doing politics in a very status quo way.  Peterson also glossed over the fact that many of his supporters were core to the problems the BCCP had in the run up to the 2013 election.  He does not seem to be willing to acknowledge that the BC Conservatives had a really, really bad election for a host of reasons.  He put the weak result down to the performance of John Cummins in the leader's debate and this was just one bad night.

Dan Brooks sounded more realistic about the party.  He acknowledged he and others made mistakes in how the party was run in 2012/13.  He also said that as the leader he would run in any by-elections even in Victoria.  

It sounds like Rick Peterson wants to build an organization to win government in the next election whereas Dan Brooks sounds like he is more interested in building a strong political party.   I am not at all convinced that Rick Peterson will be a major player for the BC Conservatives if he loses the leadership race.

Based on this debate, if I were a member of the BC Conservatives I would vote for Dan Brooks but not expect the party to do any better than a handful of seats in 2017.

My final thought, given how much stock so many people have put in the concept of Rick Peterson - there were those that saw his as a possible BC Liberal leadership candidate - why is his race for the leadership of the BC Conservative party so weak?   Dan Brooks is a nice guy but really inexperienced as a campaigner.   Why does it seem this race is close at all if Rick Peterson is reputed political player?

BC Conservative Leader's Debate in Victoria on Wednesday February 19th

Rick Peterson and Dan Brooks
at the 2013 BC Conservative AGM

There has been very little public coverage of the BC Conservative leadership race to date.   Given their performance in the 2013 election this is not really surprising, few people take them seriously as a political threat to anything.   Even though it is low key, at least the race has two candidates, Dan Brooks and Rick Peterson.

This coming Wednesday the two candidates for the leadership will be taking part in a debate here in Victoria.   The event will be at 7 pm at the Salvation Army Citadel 4030 Douglas Street.  I only know this because of information on Dan Brooks' website.   There is nothing on the BC Conservative website about the leader debates.

It is the first of five debates between the two candidates.   Since it is here in Victoria and open to the public and media, I thought I would go and check it out.  I will post some details about it later this week.

Future debates will be held in:
Kelowna March 14th 7 pm - location not known
Salmon Arm March 15th 7 pm - location not known
Dawson Creek March 22nd 7 pm - location known
Langley March 29th 7pm - location not known

BC Conservative AGM on the weekend and some leadership race update

part of the 2013 BC Conservative AGM crowd

Over the weekend the BC Conservatives held their 2013 AGM at the Best Western in Vernon.  Based on what I could see on twitter, 70 people registered to go to the AGM and 55 showed up.   This is one of several tweets that had attendance numbers:

Smithy Jones ‏@SmithyJones_19 Oct

@SFoxdale 70 registered but only 55 showed @AlanForseth @BenBesler @JohnCrocock #bccp

Other reports have attendance as high as 80 people with about 65 members. Either way it is only a small variation and still not a very high turnout.

This is lower than the fall 2012 AGM in Langley, which should be of concern, but the AGMs in 2012 and 2011 did not have have large attendance either. The numbers are still in the same ballpark of average wedding guest list. This is not nearly enough to be a serious political threat in BC.  

There seems to have been no media coverage of the event that I can find. I found a couple of small local newspaper pieces on the results of the board election. I saw nothing at CHBC and a tiny mention at CFJC.

The party did not manage to get anything onto their website about the AGM after they announced it in July. There was nothing about who was running for what positions on the board. They did not manage to get an agenda onto the website either.

The voting for the new board had competitive races for all the positions other than secretary. I have no idea what the votes were for any position. Tom Birch defeated John Friesen for President. Yvonne Darcel was running for director at large before the AGM but at the AGM ran for VP and lost to Paul Redekop. She then ran against Mike McLoughlin for Treasurer and won.

From the tweets, eight people were on the ballot for Director at Large. Before the weekend I knew of Andy Irvine, Gary Grewal, Yvonne Darcel, David Wilder and Wayne Marklund running. Yvonne Darcel I assume was dropped from the ballot because of her election as Treasurer which means I am one name short given who was elected. (update - the last name on the ballot was John Friesen)

The new board that was elected is a clear break from the 2012/2013 John Cummins era board

7 of 8 members of 2013/13 BCCP Board

• Tom Birch President
• Paul Redekopp Vice-president
• Yvonne Darcel Treasurer
• Nathan Giede Secretary
• Daivd Wilder Director at Large
• Janet Green Director at Large
• Mike McLoughlin Director at Large
• Scott Anderson Director at Large

This is a complete change from the 2012/13 board

• Brian Wilson Vice President
• Dan Denis President
• Al Siebring Secretary
• Lambert Leung Treasurer
• Dennis Belliveau Director at Large
• Doug Machan Director at Large
• Dan Brooks Director at Large
• Frankie Fenton Director at Large

This is not the first wholesale or close to wholesale change the BC Conservative board has seen in the last decade. It is not great for building to have all new people come in, but it seems like none of the 2012/13 board members were willing to continue. It certainly sets up the party to be a very new organization.

One thing to note about the new board is that four of the eight come from the Okanagan. That is a strong shift away from other parts of the province. I do not know if this is because the AGM was in Vernon or a reflection of the fact the party is by far the strongest in the Okanagan. Given the relative strengths of the two leadership campaigns, this new board on first glance is more in tune with Dan Brooks than Rick Peterson it would seem.

The Leadership Race

Dan Brooks speaking at the AGM

Meanwhile in the leadership race there has been little of excitement happening between the two candidates. Neither one managed to make much of their websites. Neither one has a video of their speech to the AGM online. At least Dan Brooks has a text copy of his online.

Rick Peterson did offer part of his website as a place for people running for the board to post some information. It was a good thing that he did because the party itself had nothing online about who was running for what positions.

It has been a month since this race started and neither one has any big name endorsements:

Rick Peterson has the endorsement of 15 people , nine that ran for the BC Conservatives in 2013, two other people that ran in the 2013 election and four more BC Conservative individuals of some standing

Rick Peterson speaking at the AGM

Dan Brooks has the endorsement of 14 people - 11 that ran for the BC Conservatives in 2013 and three more BC Conservatives of some standing

In social media land

Rick Peterson 290 followers, following 664 and 569 tweets

Dan Brooks 99 followers, following 423 and 112 tweets

The state of the leadership campaign should scare any BC Conservatives out there. There is no indication of a strong robust race going on.  

Based on what I have seen so far, someone could join the race February 10th, sign up 300 to 400 new members in a handful of ridings by March 22nd and win the race.

November 15th 1980 BC Conservatives elected Brian Westwood as leader

Given the current BC Conservative leadership race, I thought this short article and a Marjorie Nichols column from the Vancouver Sun of November 17th 1980 were interesting reads.  

In the 1979 election the BC PCs went into the election holding one seat, leader Vic Stephens who had been elected in a by-election March 20th 1978 in Oak Bay.  Vic Stephens did not win in the May 1979 election in the new riding of Oak Bay Gordon Head.

The PCs/Conservatives in BC have tried several comebacks since the disaster in 1952.    In 1963 Davie Fulton was convince to take over the BC PCs.  He managed 11.27% of the vote even with only 44 candidates for 52 seats.  They did not win any.

In 1971 sitting Oak Bay Socred MLA George Scott Wallace crossed to the PCs and he was re-elected as a PC in 1972 and 1975.  In 1972 Hugh Curtis was elected in Saanich as a PC as well, but he crossed the floor to the Socreds in 1974.

BC Conservative Leadership Race

Since I looked at the BC Conservative leadership race ten days ago there has been some changes.   Dan Brooks has been rather silent as far as I can tell but Rick Peterson has not.

Rick Peterson has revamped his website and has added a few more people endorsing him as leader.   The new site is better laid on than the old one but still not a lot of content.  He had been tweeting a bit while he was in Fort St John for the energy conference.

He now has seven people endorsing him:
Those on the ballot as BC Conservative Candidates in 2013

• Carol Day
• Duane Nickull - the addition of his name is not new, though it is now confirmed he is endorseing Peterson whereas previsously it was unclear based on the Peterson website.
• Sean Upshaw

Not on the ballot as a BC Conservative but endorsed by the party

• Bill Clarke

On the ballot as an independent after being dropped by the BC Conservatives

• Iain Tootill

Ran as an independent

• Jamie Webbe - I would not have expected her to come out as a BC Conservative supporter because she sounds more like she should be a Green.   She did remarkably well for an independent candidate and managed 4.18% of the the vote.   I know that does not sound like a lot, but it is the 9th highest result for any independent which included three sitting MLAs and Arthur Hadland.  She also did not spend a lot of money, less than $4,000.

Doug Machan has also endorsed Rick Peterson, though he did not run in 2013 but is a BC Conservative Party director at large.

Still, not a large list of endorsements and certainly not any big names on the list so far.  I remain surprised that  Rick Peterson has come out of the gate so weakly.   All I can see is that either Rick Peterson is inexperienced in campaigning, or he is not very popular in Conservative circles, or he is just not as skilled as people keep trying to tell me he is.

Overall the BC Conservative Leadership race is looking more like one during the Wilf Hanni era than the John Cummins era.   It is only two weeks before their AGM and I would expect serious candidates to come out of the woodwork in time for this to be able to register so that they can speak to the members attending.

What should be much more disturbing for the BC Conservatives is that there is virtually no coverage of the race not only in the media but in the blogosphere as well.   Alan Forseth in Kamloops is offering his views, but that is about it.    In the Twittersphere the hashtag #LeadBCC is not getting much use.   If no one is interested in the race at all that should really worry the party.

BC Conservative Leadership Race - a few thoughts

Rick Peterson has entered, so now there is a race.  Everything people on the right tell me about Rick Peterson is that he is a major serious political force.  I am not convinced because I have not seen the evidence yet but I will keep my mind open because of their opinions.

Based on what I have seen so far, there is little saying to me that Rick Peterson has come out of the gate strongly.   I do think his launch was a better organized event than Dan Brooks' launch but on the other hand it seems to have garnered less media coverage.

How can I judge the relative strengths of the campaigns?   I thought I would start with which of the former candidates has endorsed a leadership contestant.  I have listed how well the candidates did in the 2013 election and how much money they raised and spent.

Four or Five Former Candidates Endorsing Rick Peterson

• Bill Clarke - BCCP candidate in Vancouver Quilchena though without the party name on the ballot.  He managed just under 3% of the vote.  He is the former PC MP for Vancouver Quadra  from 1972-84.  He raised $14,738.18 and spent the same amount, $11,998.18 came from himself
• Carol Day - BCCP candidate Richmond Steveston.  At 11.4% of the vote she did second best of any Conservative in Metro Vancouver only slightly behind John Cummins at 11.9%.   She raised $8,395.97 and spent $8,395.97 - $1,440 came from herself or her husband, interestingly $1,000 came from the Richmond Firefighters
• Iain Tootill - was the BCCP candidate on Vancouver False Creek until the party dropped him because of comments he made on Twitter.  He then ran as an independent and managed only 0.9% of the vote.  He raised $8,020.00 and spent $8,019.48 of which $1,000 came from himself and $500 from Allan Richard Peterson
• Sean Upshaw - BCCP candidate in Penticton where he achieved 9.0% of the vote.  He raised $4,614.86 and spent $5,077.05, 54.5% of his contributions came from one person - Greg Rhyason.  He was also the BCCP candidate in the Westside-Kelowna by-election and saw him take the party support from 11.1% to 5.8%
• Duanne Nickull - BCCP candidate in Vancouver-Point Grey was on the stage at the announcement on Monday but is not listed on the website as endorsing Rick Peterson.  He managed a very low 1.62% of the vote.  He raised $4,081.11 and spent $6,467.49

Seven Former Candidates Endorsing Dan Brooks

• Michael Beauclair - BCCP candidate in Fraser-Nicola and only managed 6.6% of the vote which is not great in a region the BCCP is in theory stronger.  He raised $2,425.59 and spent $2,303.19
• Bob Bray - BCCP candidate in North Island and managed 7.1% of the vote.   He raised $7,120.11 and spend $7,380.38 - $2,000 came from himself or his wife.   The North Island BC Conservative Constituency Association gave him $2,750
• Nathan Giede - BCCP candidate in Prince George-Valemount - raised $7,000.00 and spent $7,644.76 of which all the money donated was from Johannes Giede's medical practice in Prince George
• Dianne Hoffmann - BCCP candidate in Comox Valley and only managed 5.4% of the vote.  She raised $5,871.46 and spent the same.  $1,108.09 came from her own pocket
• Ed Klop - BCCP candidate in Kamloops-North Thompson though only managed 7.0% of the vote.  He raised $2,609 and spent $8,910.37 - he should have a deficit for the campaign that should be noted as a loan but I can not find those details on his form.
• Mike Pratas - BCCP candidate in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows  though without the party name on the ballot and achieved 2.5% of the vote.  He raised $300 and spent $1,320
• Barry Sikora - BCCP candidate in Surrey-Tynehead and did decent for a Conservative in Metro Vancouver with 10.7% of the vote.  He raised $48,799.90 and spent $48,767.08 of which $27,463.70 was from his own business and at least $9,000 from his immediate family 

When I look at the lists above, there is nothing in them that says to me to that Rick Peterson is much better organized or prepared than Dan Brooks.   Rick Peterson had four of the five on the stage for his announcement from Metro Vancouver.  Dan Brooks has a better geographic distribution among the ones endorsing him.

There were 56 candidates run with BC Conservative on the ballot and five more that did not have that endorsement on the ballot.  The above list, together with Dan Brooks, represents 12 of 61 candidates.  We have yet to have a big name from outside of the existing BC Conservatives to come forward and endorse either candidate.

I am surprised that the Rick Peterson campaign does not look stronger.  My assessment of Dan Brooks is that he is a nice guy who is very new to political campaigning.   If Rick Peterson is such a serious political force why is the outward image of his campaign not markedly better or stronger than Dan Brooks' campaign?

BC Conservative Leadership Election Rules

I thought I would post this here so that interested people could see the rules under which the BC Conservatives are conducting their leadership election.

Here is the exert from the BC Conservative Constitution
12.05. Voting Procedures for Election of a Leader.
(a) In the event there is only one Candidate for Leader, election shall be by acclamation.
(b) In the event there is more than one candidate, voting will be by universal ballot, with ballots mailed at least fifteen (15) days prior to the Leadership Convention to every member in good standing who will be in good standing as of the date of the Convention. Ballots may be returned by mail or delivered to the Leadership Convention. Ballots must be received by the Party prior to or at the time of the Convention in advance of the vote cut off time in order to be counted.
(c) Voting will be as follows:
(i) each member in good standing will have one vote;
(ii) each member in good standing will be mailed a secret ballot;
(iii) each electoral Constituency will be allotted one hundred (100) points except that electoral Constituencies with less than one hundred (100) members in good standing as at the date of the vote count shall be allocated the number of points that is equal to the number of its members in good standing.
(iv) the ballots will be returned by mail in security envelopes, sorted by electoral Constituency and delivered unopened to the Leadership Convention;
(v) the ballots will be opened and counted at the Convention in the presence of scrutineers appointed by each candidate; and,
(vi) the Leadership candidates will be assigned a point total based on their percentage of the vote in each electoral Constituency.
(vii) To win the leadership, a candidate must obtain a majority of points from across the Province.
(viii) Voting will be by preferential vote (single transferable ballot).
(ix) At each count round, both the weighted results and the results by electoral Constituency shall be made public.

What is interesting about this process is that in every riding with fewer than 100 members we will know the actual membership of the party.   I suspect that at the moment there are many lower mainland ridings where the BC Conservative membership is less than 10 people.  

This section also makes it clear that people can sign up as members through to March 22nd 2014 and still vote in the leadership race.

First candidate comes forward to replace John Cummins as BC Conservative Leader

Dan Brooks, the BC Conservative candidate in Nechako Lakes in this year's provincial election, announced today he is in the running to be the next leader of the party.

News had been floating around since the mid summer than he intended to run for the leadership so this is not a surprise announcement.  What I do find odd is his decision to announce in Kamloops.   I asked him and he answered:  "Kamloops is closer to the strength of the party in the interior. There is good media there, and close enough to travel to Vancouver when occasion demands."  He has actually moved to Kamloops for the leadership campaign from Vanderhoof

A very empty room for Dan Brooks announcement

He made the announcement today in front of a small crowd.  Based on what I saw on CFJC there were only six Conservatives and a media at the announcement.  His website dandbrooksbc.ca is not yet live, which I do not quite understand since that is the easiest way for the media to get the information about the candidate.

John Cummins as a long term moderately well known MP should have been the ticket to the BC Conservatives moving into the political mainstream in this province but his leadership of the party was less than stellar.  This time around the party does not seem like it is going to attract anyone of that stature to run for the leadership.   If the BC Conservatives are to do better in 2017 they need a leader that can get the party organized on the ground, someone that can get thousands of people to join the party.   I am not sure that Dan Brooks is that person.

So far the field officially only has Dan Brooks though there are rumours are out there that Rick Peterson will run as well.  Tom Birch, the BC Conservative candidate in Shuswap, had said he would run but is now running to be president of the party instead. The entry fee is $20,000, which I think is surprisingly high for this party at this time, still, with three or four candidates, that is a significant windfall for the party.   From looking at the provincial election finances, it would seem that Dan Brooks can afford the entry fee.

Dan Brooks spent $44,935.37 on his campaign in Nechako Lakes but only raised $12,560.25 of which only  $9,026 was in money.   Of that money, $5,000 was from one individual, Brian Fehr - interestingly in 2013 Fehr also donated $65,000 to the NDP in via his company Nechako Construction, $10,000 personally to the BC Conservatives and a further $2,000 to BC Conservative candidate Earl Olsen in Columbia River Revelstoke.   Streamline Signs of Vanderhoof donated $3,534.25 in services and goods to Dan Brooks.    Dan Brooks covered another $4,157.18 in candidate expenses which is above and beyond his campaign spending.   He also spent $3,196.96 in non-election expenses.   The campaign still had $1,511.02 in the bank as of August 12th.

Dan Brooks was also his own financial agent.  I also can not see many names of people on his 2013 campaign website.

What all this says to me is that Dan Brooks had a very small campaign team and bankrolled most of it himself, something on the order of $37,000.

For comparison:
Candidate                Party $ Raised  $ Spent
Colin Hamm               Green   $1,599   $1,599
Sussanne Skidmore-Hewlett  NDP  $53,152  $56,263
John Rustad            Liberal  $74,839  $72,983

Given that he spend similar amounts to the NDP I would have expected his results to be better than they were.  Yes, at 12.66% of the vote he had one of the better BC Conservative results in the election but he also spent more than almost all the others.   Once again, this says to me that he did not have much of a campaign team.

His media releases today had no names of anyone working on his team - at a minimum I would have expected there to be some mention of who the campaign manager was and who the media contact person was.  When I asked him via email he said his campaign manager is Barry Sikora who was the BC Conservative candidate in Surrey Tynehead.  Barry Sikora raised over $48,000 of which $21,826 was in cash and the rest was in kind donations from Classic Impressions which is owned by Barry Sikora.

He also added the following about his campaign manager "I'm going to be organizing more volunteers and plan to extend the role as it grows too much for Barry."  which does not strike me as a core role of the candidate.  

There is no mention of any endorsements either, though Dan Brooks says they will be coming.  He also says social media would be coming.   

Based on what I have seen so far, Dan Brooks is a nice well meaning guy that is not ready to lead a political party.

Here is the text of his announcement today:

Dan Brooks announces candidacy for

Leader of the BC Conservatives

Campaign will emphasize issues in Interior, North and Rural B.C.

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - SEPT. 12, 2013 - Dan Brooks today announced his candidacy to become the new Leader of the BC Conservative Party.

"I am proud to declare that I am seeking to win election as the Leader of the BC Conservatives," said Brooks.

"I was born in B.C.'s North, I am raising my family in rural British Columbia, and I make my living off our bountiful natural resources. For too long, however, the people living in our province's Interior, North and Rural regions have been neglected, ignored by the decision-makers in Victoria.

"My campaign will focus on developing and being a strong voice for those British Columbians who believe that their interests are not being heard or represented in the corridors of power."

Brooks was born in Vanderhoof, B.C. and he later graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.A. in Classical (Greek and Roman) Studies.

He returned to the North and in 1995 to operate a family business, Crystal Lake Resort Ltd., located north of the Chilcotin region and south of the Nechako River.

In the May 2013 provincial general election, Brooks was the BC Conservative candidate in the riding of Nechako Lakes. He obtained 12.6 per cent of the popular vote, ranking him fifth out of 56 Conservative candidates who contested the election.

Brooks also announced that his campaign office will be located in Kamloops.

"I believe BC Conservative members living in the Interior, North and Rural parts of the province will decide the next Leader of our party," said Brooks. "And Kamloops is ideally situated as a centralized location from which to run my leadership campaign."

-30-

CONTACT:
Dan Brooks
BC Conservative Leadership Candidate
Office: 250-434-2550
dan@danbrooksbc.ca

When John Cummins steps down, what then for the BC Conservatives? Does anyone care?

I assume John Cummins will step down as BC Conservative leader sometime soon, there is no possible way that the party should keep him as leader given the horrendous job he has done.   The fall of the party from a serious contender for seats in early 2012 to fringe party status has been dramatic.

1. In 2012 the party managed to do significantly worse in the two by-elections than expected.  At the same time John Cummins managed to drive away the one MLA willing to cross the floor to the Conservatives.
2. The 2013 general election was a significant failure for the party given that in 2009 with only 24 candidates it managed to get over 10% in the Okanagan but in 2013 it could not build on this.   The party could not manage to run a full slate, had to drop candidates it had not vetted did not manage to fill in the forms correctly to get five of their candidates to be listed as Conservatives on the ballot.
3. We then come to the recent by-election in Westside-Kelowna.   The social media presence of the party was non-existent - the party website has not been updated since the general election.   The leader did not seem to be putting any energy of effort into the race.  The party could not get the volunteers from all over the Okanagan to work on the campaign as it should have been able to.

Cummins will go, he has to go, but when?   The party has their AGM in September but has as of now not announced any details about it.  I assume this would be the time for him to step down but honestly no one seems to really care about him any longer.   Who would be willing to take over as leader?   Given the very small membership base, realistically anyone that could sign up 200 to 300 people should be able to win the post.

I have no real insight into the BC Conservatives so what I am offering here is a list of my best guesses at who might be want to be the next leader of the BC Conservatives:

John Cummins redux:

• Paul Forseth - MP from 1993 to 2006 for various iterations of ridings based on New Westmister and parts of Burnaby.   He is a couple of years younger than Cummins and never had the sort of profile Cummins had as an MP.

Current Party Leadership

• Dan Brooks - is currently on the board of the party.  He ran in Nechako Lakes and did seem to do well enough given the disaster of the campaign.  He seems personable and intelligent.  He also seems to be in it for the long run
• Christine Clark - has been on the board and seems loyal to the current power structure of the party.  I am not convinced she would run to be leader.
• Al Siebring - he seems to be the main power in the party but I do think he has any interest in being leader,  He is the current Conservative Party board secretary and a sitting North Cowichan councilor. 

Not in the inner circles that I can tell

• Graeme James - he has been elected to Kelowna council.  I am not sure at his desire for more in poltiics.
• Scott Anderson - he put a lot of energy into the election in Vernon-Monashee and is not ready to walk away from politics
• Sean Upshaw - he seems more committed to making the party work than most people.
• Kurt Peats - ran in Peace River South and did the best of any Conservative candidate in the 2013 election coming in second with 27.2% of the vote.  This the first time a Conservative has placed this high in any election or by-election sine a 1978 by-election in Oak Bay which was won by Vic Stephens for the PCs.   His relative success and the area of the province he is from makes him a strong choice for a new leader if the party wants to be taken seriously
• Rick Peterson - he tried to get rid of Cummins before and seems to have some form of political aspirations

The Youth - I see three possible youth candidates trying to win

• Bryce Crigger  - he ran in Nanaimo.  At 24 he was the youngest Conservative candidate
• Chad Eros - he ran in Chilliwck for the party and had a lot of energy
• Ryan Warawa - I know he has further political aspirations

The Off the Wall

• Wilf Hanni - a return for the serial political party leader.  Honestly I do not think he has the organizational skills to take over the party
• Mischa Popoff - the off the wall guy from Boundary Similkameen that was a candidate for the party till they dropped him for being too off the wall for them.

If I were to put money on who would win, I would choose either Dan Brooks or Kurt Peats with a long shot chance for one of the younger guys.