Findlay’s chief of staff resigns as two more MLAs quit B.C. Conservative caucus

VICTORIA — British Columbia Conservative Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay said she was the victim of a “co-ordinated political attack” after she accepted the resignation of her chief of staff and two more legislators quit her caucus on Wednesday, both citing ethical concerns and Findlay’s reported connections to Alberta separatists.

Scott McInnis became the ninth MLA to defect in less than three weeks, announcing his departure a little over two hours after Donegal Wilson’s.

Their exits were swiftly followed by Findlay’s announcement that Chris Delaney had resigned as her chief of staff, adding to the chaotic reshaping of the party since Findlay narrowly won the leadership three months ago.

Delaney has been at the centre of allegations that legislators were improperly offered jobs in exchange for resigning so Findlay, who does not have a seat in the legislature, could run in a byelection now set for later this month.

One of the legislators who quit the caucus last week, Delta South MLA Ian Paton, has said Delaney offered him a job as an adviser in exchange for resignation as an MLA, and the RCMP had since arranged to interview him.

Findlay said accusations being levelled against her and her team were “baseless,” part of an effort to derail her campaign in Abbotsford-Mission, where Reann Gasper resigned as MLA. Gasper was then appointed Findlay’s deputy chief of staff last week, before being promoted to fill the vacancy left by Delaney on Wednesday.

“I have spent my career serving in positions of significant public trust,” Findlay said in a statement.

“I am a lawyer, a former Canadian Human Rights Tribunal judge, a King’s counsel and a member of the King’s Privy Council for Canada. I served British Columbians as a federal cabinet minister and later as chief Opposition whip in the Conservative caucus. I have been vetted numerous times to be given the highest security clearances.”

Findlay said her responsibilities had carried “serious ethical and professional obligations” and she had always “conducted myself accordingly.”

Both McInnis and Wilson cited Findlay’s reported connections to Alberta separatists as part of a series of concerns in their decisions to defect.

McInnis, who said he would sit as an Independent in Columbia River-Revelstoke, said there were “serious ethical questions” around Findlay’s team, as well as their reported connections to Alberta separatism, which Wilson also cited in a statement announcing she would sit as an Independent in Boundary-Similkameen.

Findlay’s communication with the caucus had broken down, experienced staff had been fired and more than one of her senior appointees “has been reported to have links to Alberta’s separatist movement,” Wilson said.

The MLA said she no longer believed Findlay could “bring Conservatives back together” and she could not honestly campaign for the leader in the byelection.

The party has been in a state of upheaval since former leadership contender Peter Milobar quit the caucus on Aug. 14. A parade of other MLAs followed, including Paton, who said RCMP had made an appointment to speak with him and he expected they would ask about his claim that Delaney offered him a job as an adviser if he would stand down as an MLA to allow Findlay to run in a byelection.

Wilson’s statement cited “mounting questions about alleged inducements” to secure Findlay a seat in the B.C. legislature.

She also made apparent reference to Apollo Chung, who was abruptly removed from his post as the party’s director of operations last week.

Her statement described “a recording attributed to (Findlay’s) own director of operations discussing forcing fundraisers, wanting half a million dollars and being able to ‘steal everything.'”

Gasper’s resignation as an MLA came after a lengthy effort by Findlay to find someone willing to quit to make way for her. Paton said Delaney asked him to step down in July, saying he’d be given a job for two years with the same salary as an MLA.

“I was told I would be given some sort of a staff job as a party staffer and I would be an agriculture adviser or policy adviser,” Paton said in an interview Tuesday.

Paton rejected the offer but said he initially wasn’t aware that it could be an offence.

It is illegal under the Criminal Code to negotiate a reward or benefit related to resignation from political office.

Findlay has previously denied offering jobs in exchange for resignations and said suggestions that a recording released online shows she illegally did so were “preposterous.”

She said in a statement last week that the recordings were “normal political discussions” that did not constitute a criminal offence.

RCMP have said they were aware of the purported recording of Findlay addressing Conservative legislators, but the force does not confirm or deny any investigation or the identity of anyone who may be subject to an investigation until charges are laid.

McInnis said the party had increasingly become “an exclusive private club more concerned with ideological bona fides than building the broad coalition” needed to achieve government, calling it a “recipe for failure.”

He said he could no longer support Findlay’s “direction, judgment and decisions.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2026.

Chuck Chiang and Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press