Ejected B.C. Conservative MLA, 2 others who left party will sit as Independents

Vancouver-Quilchena Conservative Candidate Dallas Brodie attends a campaign stop with Conservative Leader John Rustad, not seen, in Vancouver, on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Three former B.C. Conservative legislators have announced they will sit as Independents in the provincial legislature.

Dallas Brodie was kicked out of the party on Friday over her comments about residential schools, and Jordan Kealy and Tara Armstrong left the party saying Opposition Leader John Rustad had abandoned the truth.

Kealy had said Friday that he’d be setting up a new party, but Brodie told reporters outside the legislature today that for now they’ll be sitting as Independents and although there are “whispers” of others leaving the party, she won’t give names.

Armstrong says Rustad “caved to the woke liberals who have infiltrated the party.”

The upheaval started when Rustad asked Brodie to remove a social media post last month, where she said “zero” child burials had been confirmed at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Armstrong says no one was surprised when New Democrat Premier David Eby attacked Brodie for telling the truth about Kamloops, but Rustad’s “cowardly decision stabbed her in the back revealed just how corrupt he has become.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2025.