Founding and early years , the first Conservative Premier of British Columbia|304x304px The Conservative Party of British Columbia was formed in 1900 as the
Liberal-Conservative Party, before the province officially embraced partisan politics. The party selected
Charles Wilson as its first leader. Several opposition
factions contested the
1900 general election against the non-partisan government, but these were generally loose affiliations. When Premier Hart retired in 1947, the Conservatives pushed for Anscomb to succeed him as
Premier, but the Liberals, who had more members in the coalition caucus, insisted that the role remain with a Liberal.
Byron Johnson was appointed Premier a short time later, but the conflict strained relations between the two parties and leaders going forward, and caused internal divisions to open up within the Conservatives. The PCs were riven into three factions: one led by
Okanagan MLA
W.A.C. Bennett, who called for the Liberals and Conservatives to fuse into a single party; a second faction that supported the status-quo; and a third that wanted Anscomb to simply lead the PCs out of the coalition. Meanwhile, the Liberals were beginning to doubt that they needed the fractious Conservatives to govern. The coalition was re-elected in the
1949 election, winning 39 seats against nine for the CCF opposition, but despite this, growing divisions within the Conservative Party resulted in Anscomb's leadership being challenged at the 1950 party convention. Bennett, who had moved over to the anti-coalition faction, quit the party and
crossed the floor to sit as a Social Credit League of British Columbia member, eventually forming the
BC Social Credit Party. The Conservatives properly re-founded their party and went into the
1952 election with the goal of unseating Premier Johnson.
Decline Prior to the
1952 election, the coalition government, whose entire reason for being had been to keep the CCF out of power, introduced an
instant-runoff voting system. The assumption behind the change was that business-oriented voters would keep the democratic socialist party out of power through their secondary choices, regardless of the split between the former coalition partners. However, the
Social Credit League, led by
Albertan Ernest George Hansell, won the most seats in the election, while the two former coalition partners fell far behind. The PCs won only four seats, not including Anscomb's
Oak Bay constituency. Two months later, former Tory W.A.C. Bennett would take control of the Socreds; he dropped the party's
social credit monetary reform policy in favour of traditional and populist platforms. It was clear to those who wanted to keep the CCF out of power that only the Socreds would be able to accomplish that task; as such, business-oriented voters left the old parties behind. Having a
majority government following 1953, the Social Credit government changed the electoral system back to
first past the post in order to cement its base. Social Credit became, in effect, the new centre-right coalition party, and both the Liberals and the Conservatives became marginalized.
Wilderness years Between the
1956 and
1972 elections, the Conservatives won no seats in the Legislature; as a result, the party began to dwindle. After
1960, the party would not run a full slate of candidates again until 2024.
Deane Finlayson served as leader from 1952 until 1961, eventually handing the reins to federal
Member of Parliament Davie Fulton. Fulton led the party to a brief surge of relevance in the
1963 election, winning 11% of the vote but no seats, with even Fulton falling far behind his Socred opponent in the
Kamloops constituency. Fulton left soon after, returning to federal politics while the BC Conservatives collapsed into ruin. The Party ran only three candidates in the
1966 election, and just one, then-party leader
John de Wolf, in the
1969 election. In 1971, former Socred MLA
Scott Wallace, who represented
Oak Bay,
crossed the floor to join the PCs; he became the party's first MLA in 15 years. The PCs earned nearly 13% of the vote in the
1972 election and two seats—Wallace's and
Hugh Curtis in
Saanich and the Islands, both in the
Victoria area. The election was won by the CCF's successor party, the
New Democratic Party (NDP), who took advantage of the split between the Socreds, Conservatives, and resurgent Liberals to form a majority government. Wallace was elected leader of the party in 1973. However, in 1974, his caucus mate Curtis left to join the Social Credit caucus, answering a call by new leader
Bill Bennett to reunite the 'pro-business' vote. Wallace was able to win his own seat in the
1975 election. However, he resigned in 1977 and returned to his medical practice shortly after. Wallace's successor in
Oak Bay and the party leadership was the last Tory MLA to be elected.
Vic Stephens won the seat in a 1978
by-election, but lost in the following year's general election campaign. During this time, with most of their voters in BC supporting Social Credit, the federal
Progressive Conservative Party kept its distance in order to avoid alienating Social Credit Party supporters. When the
federal and
provincial election campaigns overlapped in 1979, federal leader
Joe Clark made obvious efforts to avoid any contact with Stephens. The Conservatives returned to the political wilderness in the following years. For a brief stint in 1986, former NDP MLA
Graham Lea crossed the floor to sit as a PC MLA, but quit politics altogether following the dissolution of the Legislature for the
1986 election. In 1991, the party changed its name back to the BC Conservative Party. However, the party was unable to gain traction during the collapse of the Socred government in the
1991 election and the subsequent re-alignment of BC politics. The party ran only a handful of candidates between 1991 and 2005, as the pro-business voters of the province moved en masse to the
BC Liberals.
Twenty-first century revival efforts In 2005, former
BC Reform Party and Christian conservative British Columbia Party leader
Wilf Hanni was elected leader of the Conservatives. The party fielded 24 candidates in the
2009 election, its highest number since 1979, and earned 2.1% of the vote. In the aftermath of the election, Hanni resigned as party leader, along with eleven directors and party officials, citing infighting. By the end of 2010, with former
Newfoundland premier
Brian Peckford acting as an advisor, the party had the support of 8% of voters according to opinion polls, had approximately 2,000 members—up from 300 in June of that year—and had constituency associations established in 45 of the province's 85 ridings. The party received another boost in 2011. After
Christy Clark defeated
Kevin Falcon for the BC Liberal leadership, a segment of Falcon's supporters defected to the Conservative ranks. The Conservatives held their own leadership convention on May 28, 2011, where former
Conservative Party of Canada Member of Parliament
John Cummins was proclaimed leader. By late 2011, Conservative support had surged to 18%. On March 26, 2012,
Abbotsford South MLA
John van Dongen announced that he was leaving the Liberals to join the Conservatives, providing the party with its first representative in the
Legislative Assembly since 1986. However, six months later van Dongen switched to Independent status after Cummins was re-elected party leader without van Dongen's support. van Dongen stated that he lacked confidence in Cummins' leadership and cited differences about the party's direction as reasons for leaving. In the run-up to the
2013 election, the party was able to field only 56 candidates. Nevertheless, Cummins was invited to join the leaders of the Liberals, NDP, and
Greens on-stage for the leaders' debates. The Conservatives ultimately received less than 5% of the vote and had no candidates elected. On July 18, 2013, Cummins resigned as party leader. Dan Brooks was elected the new leader of the party on April 12, 2014. Brooks resigned at the party's annual general meeting on February 20, 2016. However, stating that outstanding issues that led to his resignations were resolved, Brooks was re-elected as leader at a leadership convention held on September 17, 2016. On October 28, 2016, the party's executive board removed Brooks from the leadership after ruling that the meeting that approved his candidacy for the leadership convention lacked quorum. Brooks criticized the decision, stating that the executive were "like praying mantises, they eat their leaders". The party did not select a new leader before the start of the
2017 election campaign. As such, the Conservatives entered the election campaign without a leader. The party nominated only ten candidates, none of whom were elected. In September 2017, following the party's annual general meeting,
Scott Anderson, a
Vernon city councillor, was appointed interim leader by a unanimous vote of the newly elected board. Anderson oversaw the reformation of several defunct riding associations and an increase in membership, and took the party through the
Kelowna West and
Nanaimo by-elections.
Fort St. John city councillor
Trevor Bolin became the party's new permanent leader on April 8, 2019. The party altered its name to the Conservative Party of British Columbia prior to the
2020 general election. During the
BC Liberal leadership race in 2022, conservative commentator
Aaron Gunn was disqualified by the party, which described his views as "inconsistent" with Liberal values including "diversity and acceptance of all British Columbians". Following his disqualification, Gunn founded Common Sense BC, an advocacy group to study the viability of a right-wing alternative to the BC Liberals. Common Sense endorsed a slate of candidates who stood for election to the Conservative Party board at the May 2022 annual general meeting, effectively launching a takeover of the party. The endorsed candidates, including conservative strategist Angelo Isidorou, were elected, and right-wing activists took control of the party. In August 2022, the party revealed a new logo, alongside a new website and platform. Isidorou went on to serve as executive director and provincial campaign manager in the 2024 election.
Resurgence under Rustad became party leader in 2023 after
crossing the floor from the BC Liberals|234x234px On February 16, 2023,
John Rustad, MLA for
Nechako Lakes, joined the Conservative Party, giving the party representation in the Legislature for the first time since 2012. Rustad had been elected as a Liberal but was removed from the party's caucus in August 2022 after he refused to undo his
retweet of a comment casting doubt on the scientific consensus that
climate change is caused by carbon dioxide emissions; after the removal, Rustad sat as an Independent. Rustad cited "irreconcilable differences" with Liberal leader Kevin Falcon in explaining his decision to join the Conservatives. Bolin announced on March 3, 2023 that he was stepping down as party leader; further, a
party leadership race would be held in the near future. Three weeks later, Rustad announced that he was running for the party's leadership. On March 31, 2023, Rustad was acclaimed as the new leader as the only candidate in the race. In the June 2023
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant and
Langford-Juan de Fuca by-elections, the Conservative candidates placed fourth and second, with 4.88% and 19.86% of the vote, respectively. The second place finish in Langford-Juan de Fuca, ahead of the centre-right
BC United (formerly the BC Liberals), indicated a surge in support for the Conservatives, which was seen to echo that of the federal
Conservative Party, which by 2023 was surging in national polls. showing increased support for the party On September 13, 2023, BC United MLA
Bruce Banman crossed the floor to join the Conservatives. This gave the Conservatives the two MLAs necessary for official party status, and Banman was named party house leader. As a result of the party gaining official status, the Legislative Assembly Management Committee approved $214,000 in funding for the Conservative caucus, equivalent to the two-MLA Green caucus. On May 31, 2024, BC United MLA and caucus chair
Lorne Doerkson crossed the floor to the Conservatives. Doerkson was followed by BC United's MLA for
Surrey South,
Elenore Sturko on June 3—she also announced her intention to run in Surrey-Cloverdale for the upcoming election— and BC United MLA for
Richmond North Centre and former Minister of Trade
Teresa Wat on July 29. Leading up to the
2024 provincial election, polls showed the Conservatives displacing BC United as the main challenger to the incumbent BC NDP. On August 28, 2024, BC United leader Falcon announced that his party, lagging in the polls, was
suspending its campaign after negotiations with Rustad, and that he was putting his support behind Rustad and the Conservatives. In addition, it was announced that some candidates from the BC United roster could run as Conservatives for the election. Popular support for the Conservatives surged after the announcement, with the party in a statistical tie in opinion polling with the NDP by mid-September. The rise of the Conservatives at the expense of BC United was noted by some commentators to have changed political discourse in the province, with the Conservatives and NDP both leaning more into
culture war issues. The Conservatives ultimately won 44 of the 93 seats it contested,
forming the official opposition and entering the Legislative Assembly for the first time since 1975.
Official Opposition and Rustad's departure from leadership In January 2025, Rustad and Honveer Singh Randhawa, the Conservatives' candidate in
Surrey-Guildford who had lost by 22 votes, demanded an independent review of the vote count. Randhawa stated that he had filed a complaint to the BC Supreme Court under the Elections Act, outlining alleged irregularities. The complaint claims, among under things, that 22 voters in Surrey-Guildford did not reside in the riding, and 21 mail-in ballots were submitted from a residential care facility where residents had not requested mail-in ballots. The latter claim was denied by the owner of the facility. Anton Boegman, BC's chief electoral officer, responded by saying Elections BC was reviewing the complaint and would launch a full investigation if it held merit. Rustad's leadership in the
43rd Parliament has been marked by internal party disputes, with the expulsions and departures of MLAs
Dallas Brodie,
Jordan Kealy,
Tara Armstrong,
Elenore Sturko, and
Amelia Boultbee. In addition, Brodie and Armstrong formed a splinter party, named
OneBC. In September 2025, Rustad won a leadership review with 70% support and 15% turnout. Shortly afterwards, he removed Sturko from caucus alleging that she was undermining her leadership; Sturko said that Rustad was silencing socially liberal views in the party. At the start of October 2025, Rustad upset his party's social conservative wing by firing longtime staffer
Lindsay Shepherd over calling the Truth and Reconciliation flag a "disgrace" and "fake" in the lead up to the
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. After Boultbee's departure, the party's management committee, led by the party president, called on Rustad to step down as leader. Rustad declined to do so. On December 3, 2025, 20 of the 39 member caucus signed a letter calling for Rustad to resign from his position as leader. The party's board of directors then passed a resolution declaring Rustad "professionally incapacitated" and ousting him as leader, appointing
Surrey-White Rock MLA
Trevor Halford as interim leader. However, in the immediate aftermath, five Conservative MLAs refused to acknowledge the board's decision and said that Rustad remained party leader, and Rustad himself, citing the party's constitution, rejected that he had been removed. The next day, the right-wing blog
Western Standard reported that Rustad would step down as leader, and shortly thereafter Rustad announced that he had resigned, seeking to avoid what he described as a "civil war" within the party. The
2026 Conservative Party of British Columbia leadership election to choose Rustad's successor is scheduled for May 30, 2026. == Ideology and positions ==