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OMG! KLF QTS | Political Capital Daily · Political Capital with Rob Shaw

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  Speaker 1: chartered flights. For more, visit helijet.com. It's Monday, September 21st, 2026,
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  Speaker 1: and this is Political Capital Daily.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Well, good morning.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: What a weekend in BC politics. Holy moly, if you're
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  Speaker 1: listening to us as you get up, on monday morning
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  Speaker 1: congratulations sunday was a very busy day that we are
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  Speaker 1: going to get you up to speed on dramatically reshaping
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  Speaker 1: bc's political agenda we have lots to get through this
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  Speaker 1: morning and also want to welcome a new sponsor to
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  Speaker 1: capital daily free each and every morning because of our
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  Speaker 1: sponsors alien machel former deputy chief of staff to premier
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  Speaker 1: david eby joins me this morning hello alien.
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  Speaker 3: Hi rob how are you doing.
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  Speaker 1: Spent all of Sunday working on a big story. It
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  Speaker 1: went a little something like this. Oh, that's the end
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  Speaker 1: of Carrie Lynn Finley.
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  Speaker 2: The game over.
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  Speaker 1: Music sounding for the B.C. Conservative leader who resigned Sunday afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: completing a four-month term as the leader of the B.C.
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  Speaker 1: Conservative Party that I would describe... as perhaps the worst
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  Speaker 1: performance from any political leader I have ever seen in B.C.
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  Speaker 2: Politics.
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  Speaker 1: We'll get into that momentarily. But if you are looking
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  Speaker 1: to plan your day in B.C. politics, let's just quickly
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  Speaker 1: give you the rundown here. John Rustad is up at
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  Speaker 1: 10 a.m.
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  Speaker 2: At the B.C.
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  Speaker 1: Legislature for press conference. He said we'll tell his side
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  Speaker 1: of the story for getting fired by Carrie Lynn Finley
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  Speaker 1: from the B.C. conservative caucus. I think Whatever he was
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  Speaker 1: about to say there about his future may have changed
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  Speaker 1: in the last 24 hours. We have some audio of
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  Speaker 1: John Rustad later in the show discussing Carolyn Finley. Also,
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  Speaker 1: possibly some sort of announcement from Centre BC today. We're
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  Speaker 1: all speculating on that. There'll be a lot of questions
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  Speaker 1: at Peter Millibar about what to do in the wake
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  Speaker 1: of Carolyn Finley quitting. Will Centre BC coalesce with the
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  Speaker 1: BC Conservatives? We will see what happens there at 10 a.m.
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  Speaker 1: Health Minister Ravi Kalan with a health ministry press conference
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  Speaker 1: in Lanceville for an update on long-term care on the
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  Speaker 1: Central Island. That would suggest we don't expect a writ
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  Speaker 1: drop today for a snap election from Premier David Eby.
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  Speaker 1: You can't have these kind of events using the government
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  Speaker 1: resources on the calendar. While you have a writ drop
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  Speaker 1: except for emergency situations, Attorney General Nikki Sharma also up
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  Speaker 1: at 11.30 for an announcement on the province's legal action
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  Speaker 1: related to the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge and... An op-ed
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  Speaker 1: in Post Media this morning from independent MLA Courtney Comox,
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  Speaker 1: Brennan Day, worth a read about holding a summit for
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  Speaker 1: the center right to coalesce and Courtney Comox to do
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  Speaker 1: better and come together. He lists a bunch of different
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  Speaker 1: alcoholic beverages he would provide depending on where you come
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  Speaker 1: from the province. An interesting read worth getting into from
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  Speaker 1: Brennan Day. So check that out this morning.
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  Speaker 3: I haven't seen that one yet, but I do think
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  Speaker 3: a summit for the right to talk about themselves is
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  Speaker 3: very on brand. as we saw over the weekend, folks
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  Speaker 3: on the right spend a lot of time fixated on
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  Speaker 3: their own drama and internal unity issues and spend a
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  Speaker 3: lot of time talking about themselves and how they can
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  Speaker 3: maneuver to get power. So it is on brand, but
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  Speaker 3: I think British Columbians would probably prefer for elected officials
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  Speaker 3: to talk about the challenges they're facing, including how to
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  Speaker 3: protect jobs and businesses, strengthen health care, build homes. But yeah,
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  Speaker 3: interested to read that op-ed and hear more about it.
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  Speaker 3: It is Certainly their choice, if they'd rather have a
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  Speaker 3: summit about themselves, they can do that.
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  Speaker 1: They've got to pick a leader. I mean, they can't
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  Speaker 1: not pick a.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: But they also have to pick a leader. We need
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  Speaker 1: a leader of the official opposition. That makes democracy run, too.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm not going to dunk on them for that.
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  Speaker 2: But, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's the first of many summits, I would assume,
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  Speaker 1: are going to occur to try and sort out the center-right. But, okay,
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  Speaker 1: let's get into this. Carolyn Finlay quitting in a letter
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  Speaker 1: saying our party needs a reset. Sometimes leadership means... knowing
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  Speaker 1: when the interests of something larger than yourself require you
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  Speaker 1: to step aside, as if she just came to this
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  Speaker 1: realization four months into a bitter civil war of the
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  Speaker 1: BC Conservative Party, saying she doesn't want the internal battle
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  Speaker 1: on her leadership to become a distraction, and that she
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  Speaker 1: needs a strong opposition to come together to fight off
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  Speaker 1: what could be a snap election by the Premier in
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  Speaker 1: the coming days. So her record here, Over four months,
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  Speaker 1: 14 MLAs quit or were fired, roughly a third of
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  Speaker 1: the caucus under Finlay's leadership. Most of the staff from
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  Speaker 1: the caucus and party were forced out. Her replacements that
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  Speaker 1: she brought in in senior positions I would describe as
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  Speaker 1: weirdos and malcontents. Chief of staff who quit after racist
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  Speaker 1: comments about First Nations were leaked in audio. An operations
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  Speaker 1: director was fired after audio leaked about misusing allegedly party money.
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  Speaker 1: party executive director who lost, uh, her job after hiring
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  Speaker 1: a private investigator to investigate a bunch of people, a
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  Speaker 1: communications director who somehow kept his job, uh, with a
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  Speaker 1: war in the mainstream media, only realizing too late that
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  Speaker 1: he needed them. Uh, a crew of weirdos, uh, that
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  Speaker 1: is the legacy of Carolyn Finley. Most of them are
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  Speaker 1: gone now, uh, along with her, but holy Yakimo Aileen,
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  Speaker 1: what a four months in.
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  Speaker 2: In BC politics.
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  Speaker 1: She's gone, uh, What do you think that means for
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  Speaker 1: BC's political landscape now?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think it's important to look at the history
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  Speaker 3: of this, right? We saw this resignation from Carrie Lynn Finlay,
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  Speaker 3: but it did come after, you know, as you said,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of pressure from people within her caucus and
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  Speaker 3: outside of her caucus. MLA's crossing the floor, a new
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  Speaker 3: party springing up, and, you know, a very aggressive, I think,
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  Speaker 3: online campaign as well. And it's not the first time
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  Speaker 3: it's happened with this party. It's the second leader that
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  Speaker 3: the BC Conservatives have pushed out in less than a
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  Speaker 3: year because of the deeply divided factions in their party.
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  Speaker 3: And so my question would be, is this really a
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  Speaker 3: team that British Columbians should trust to lead them in
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  Speaker 3: a trade war? Because who knows what could happen, right?
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  Speaker 3: It's not just Carrie Lynn Finlay. We saw, you know,
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  Speaker 3: some very bizarre things happen with Rustad as well. leading people,
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  Speaker 3: some people, to talk about him as being sort of
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  Speaker 3: like a tardigrade in the BC political atmosphere because the
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  Speaker 3: tardigrade is a creature that seemingly could survive anything and
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  Speaker 3: even survive in space. And he did, right? Like he
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  Speaker 3: held on for a very long time after very shocking
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  Speaker 3: developments when he was leader. And then we sort of
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  Speaker 3: saw the exact same scenario play out. Maybe worse examples
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  Speaker 3: with Carolyn Finley, but arguably quite similar. And so, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I think it's important to just recognize that this does
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  Speaker 3: seem to be a pattern on the right.
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  Speaker 1: I will say I've been doing this a long time.
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  Speaker 2: Some may say too long.
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  Speaker 1: I do remember a time in the BC NDP history
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  Speaker 1: where Carol James was forced out over just an absolutely
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  Speaker 1: bitter civil war of the NDP. Adrian Dick's blew what
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  Speaker 1: looked like a sure thing at 2013 election victory. And
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  Speaker 1: John Horgan took the job of opposition when no one,
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  Speaker 1: and I mean no one, wanted it.
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  Speaker 2: And he won.
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  Speaker 1: So parties, that old adage, you know, the night is
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  Speaker 1: darkest just before the dawn. Sometimes when things look hopeless,
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  Speaker 1: that ends up being the winning formula. And it's just
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  Speaker 1: the perpetual story of opposition parties, that internal friction eventually
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  Speaker 1: at some point produces a diamond in the rough.
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  Speaker 2: And I don't know if they're at that point.
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  Speaker 1: Here or not, but we'll look back on all of
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  Speaker 1: this at some point as leading to something. It's just
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  Speaker 1: we may not know exactly what it is in the moment. Aileen,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to take a break, but I think the
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  Speaker 1: question when we come back is going to be, what
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  Speaker 1: does this mean for the idea of a snap election
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  Speaker 1: early from Premier David Eby? Let's do a quick break
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  Speaker 1: and then come back and talk about that. Political Capital
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  Speaker 2: All right, snap election.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone is speculating that Premier David Eby will drop the
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  Speaker 1: writ on Tuesday. That seems to be the consensus day,
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  Speaker 1: which usually means it's wrong. But in this case, that's
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  Speaker 1: the consensus day. Aileen, do you think we still see
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  Speaker 1: a snap election from the Premier in the wake of
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  Speaker 1: Carolyn Finlay resigning?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that the impetus for an election, if
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  Speaker 3: one were to be called this week or in the
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  Speaker 3: weeks ahead, it's not a divided right. That's not... the
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  Speaker 3: impetus for an election. The reason would be the need
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  Speaker 3: for a strong mandate from voters and a stable government
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  Speaker 3: to deliver on the mandate to protect British Columbians from
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Trump's trade war. We did hear this sort of messaging
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  Speaker 3: from Premier Eby and others last week that the focus
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  Speaker 3: right now needs to be on protecting BC jobs, businesses,
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  Speaker 3: and the economy, and also, of course, to continue to
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  Speaker 3: deliver on services in the face of Trump's ongoing attacks.
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  Speaker 3: And regardless of whatever's happening on the right, The trade
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  Speaker 3: war brought on by Trump and Trump's continued attacks on
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  Speaker 3: BC and Canadian jobs is a real immense challenge that
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  Speaker 3: needs to be addressed no matter what. And it is
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  Speaker 3: a threat that it's here, it's now. So I think,
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  Speaker 3: you know, that's probably the factor that people would be
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  Speaker 3: looking at for some sort of snap election. But on
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  Speaker 3: the right, the Conservatives, you know, they'll have to choose
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  Speaker 3: an interim leader and There will be efforts to unite
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  Speaker 3: all the MLAs on the right. It doesn't really change
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  Speaker 3: the underlying problem for those folks. Because when you look
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: at the right in B.C. and the efforts to put
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  Speaker 3: it all under a tent, you get this deeply uncomfortable
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  Speaker 3: coalition of people who fundamentally disagree. They have different values.
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  Speaker 3: You've got the B.C. Liberal Board of Trade type folks
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  Speaker 3: trying to merge with culture war pushers. I think BC
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  Speaker 3: Liberal types sometimes hold Conservatives in contempt because they think
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  Speaker 3: they're kind of crazy. And then the Conservative culture war pushers,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the ones that are focused on anti-vax and
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  Speaker 3: ostriches and worse, they're deeply suspicious that BC Liberals are
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  Speaker 3: federal Liberals in disguise because sometimes they are. And I
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  Speaker 3: think we saw some of that play out over the weekend.
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  Speaker 3: And we definitely saw some weird things on social media
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  Speaker 3: last night with, you know, Conservatives out screaming that there
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  Speaker 3: can't be an election because of their own internal unity issues. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, one of the people I saw tweeting about
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  Speaker 3: this and screaming about it was one of Rustad's former
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: chiefs of staff, which is interesting to me, because for
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: the last two years, they were saying they would actually
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  Speaker 3: try to bring down the government at the earliest possible opportunity.
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  Speaker 3: And now suddenly, they're screaming, oh, no, we can't go
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  Speaker 3: to an election because we are in disarray. So they
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  Speaker 3: are a bit of a mess. But The big challenge
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  Speaker 3: that is facing BC is that trade war, and it
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  Speaker 3: needs to be addressed.
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  Speaker 1: Don't we need a leader of the opposition to kind
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  Speaker 1: of go to an election, though? Like, isn't that, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there's some discussion online that it's undemocratic for a premier
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  Speaker 1: to call an election when there's no choice available because
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: another party is going through a leadership process.
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  Speaker 3: The BC Conservatives picked their leader. Premier Eby didn't pick
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  Speaker 3: the leader for the BC Conservatives. It was BC Conservative
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  Speaker 3: members in a leadership race that chose the leader, and
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: then they pushed behind the scenes through all kinds of
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: weird tactics to get her out. EB didn't do that.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: The BC NDP didn't do that. But now the BC
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Conservatives want to blame Premier EB for that because they're
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  Speaker 3: behind in the polls. I think it's ridiculous.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Well, we shall see.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like we're still on track for a Tuesday
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  Speaker 1: snap election, but the challenge will be now what happens
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  Speaker 1: to the centre-right election Already sort of rumors and discussions
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that Centre BC, that splinter party, merger of the Peter
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: party to Centre BC and the Centre Peter party is
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: paid MLAs, may continue on, may fold back into the Conservatives.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps some people go back. We're waiting to see what
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: happens with that. There's two free agents, Brennan Day and
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Scott McInnes.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: MLA's still out there. Where do they go?
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: What happens to 1BC? Is that a bridge too far
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: to bring back into the BC Conservatives. It felt like
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Finlay was moving towards that. Who is the interim leader
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: of the Conservatives? A big push inside caucus for Lorne
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Dirksen to be an interim leader from the Caribou. And
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: does that interim leader function to basically reunite the caucus
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: and then pick another interim leader going into the election?
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Is it someone from outside the caucus? There's already a
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: draft Aaron Gunn movement that has started up online. And
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  Speaker 1: then there is the issue of Finlay herself, who I
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: checked with Elections BC yesterday, cannot be withdrawn from the by-election,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: nor does she, I mean, she's said in her statement
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: she intends to see it through. She will remain on
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the ballot as the BC Conservative candidate. If she wins,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: it's up to her to figure out if she's still
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: in the.
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  Speaker 2: Party or not.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Premier Eby cannot cancel the by-election, he lacks the authority
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: to do so, but if he calls a general election
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: before the by-election is concluded, the by-election is cancelled under law,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: says Elections BC, at which point new candidates are then
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: declared as part of the general election. So that could
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: be a situation we find ourselves in if the writ
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: is dropped on Tuesday, the by-election in Abbotsford Mission scheduled
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to complete on the 26th.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: So that would be prior to its completion.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of moving angles there, Aileen, on
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: things that we might be looking for in the days ahead.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we might have to extend the podcast these days.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Holy moly, extend the podcast.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Also, yesterday, before Carrie Lynn Finley quit, the final MLA
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: in her party chose to quit, and that was Surrey
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: MLA Linda Heppner, who announced her resignation, saying she just
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: could not understand and could not comprehend the how the
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: leader could have fired Claire Ratte, Trevor Halford, and John
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Rustad on the eve of a snap election without consulting
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: with caucus, three of their sort of big star players
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: in the party out based on what by all accounts
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: have heard to be a kind of late night text
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: mass firing spree by Findlay unilaterally booting people from caucus.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I don't, that may have partly contributed to To Finley's departure,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: there were a lot of behind-the-scenes movements from folks to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: try and find her some other thing to do in
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the movement if she's not leader, and there was also
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: discussion of some type of alleged tape that may or
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: may not exist if Brent Chapman may or may not
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: allegedly have been threatening somebody, which went around boiling the
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: swamp on X discussions for many hours about whether that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: existed and whether it was blackmail and what was going
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: on there.
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  Speaker 2: So that was a frantic.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: 24 to 48 hours for the BC Conservative side that
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: has led ultimately to the ouster of Carolyn Finlay and
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: a new interim leader that we'll watch for Monday to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: be sort of formally kind of declared and recognized going forward.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: So fascinating, fascinating times. I want to squeeze one more
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: thing in here this morning, and that is a recap
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: of announcements made by the BC NDP government here.
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  Speaker 2: And Aileen, we're going to talk a bit about this.
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  Speaker 2: I just want to go through them first here.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: The government announcing, obviously, in a UBCM speech with the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: premier on Friday, that it is pausing the PST expansion
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: from February's budget to professional services, accounting and engineering and
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: things like that, which the business community had demanded. The
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: government and the premier, as recently as last week at
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: that Putin rapper press conference, said, no, no, no, no, no,
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  Speaker 1: we need this PST. On Friday, he folds it down.
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  Speaker 1: He also announces BC Ferries, future ferries built in BC.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: And then on the weekend, there's a series of announcements,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the government restoring funding for a drug treatment for a
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: three-year-old boy in Surrey with a rare neurodegenerative disease that
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: it had previously not funded, the government finding money for
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the Ronald McDonald children's house expansion that was on hold
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: and possibly going to collapse because for many months government
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: had refused to fund that, and a series of other
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: things that government appears to be on the verge of a, oh,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: also a provincial museum honoring Canadians of South Asian heritage
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: in Surrey, which just so happens to be the battleground
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: of every election with every NDP MLA from Surrey at
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: that MOU with the city of Surrey. Feels like, and
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: tell me if I'm wrong here, we're in the midst
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: of a series of announcements, last minute sort of announcements
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: by government before what we suspect to be an election.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: And if that is the case, What is the intended
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: sort of motivation from government in doing that, do you think?
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Well, I think these are all popular announcements. I think
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: they are the type of announcement that will land well.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: I do hand a bit of credit to some of
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: the MLAs on the right. Like, for example, I think
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: it was Gavin Dew and Millibar pushing that PST expansion pivot.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: So that shows an effective effort for those opposition MLAs
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: compared to what we've typically seen from the right in
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: recent years. But a right call for government to move
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: on this given the trade war and the need to
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: find ways to make it easier for businesses. I think
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: when it comes to, you know, the art of the pivot,
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: when it comes to these sorts of announcements where they
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: change their mind, the big question is, do people want
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: a government that digs in or do they want a
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: government that's willing to pivot when they've heard from people
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: that people want to see a shift? And I think
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: people want a government that stands up for them and
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: is unapologetic in that effort, but also listening to people
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: is a big part of that. And so we have
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: seen the BCNDP pivot on issues when they've heard that
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: people think these problems can be solved in a different way.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: It's only, I guess it's the timing of the pivot,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: because we saw before the 2024 election, the pivot at
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: that time, which was to scrap the carbon tax after
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the premier saying he'd be the last one to defend
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: it and get rid of decriminalization. And I think basically
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: kind of neuter safe supply as well, right before the election.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And I guess I sort of wonder if They ring
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: a bell, those ones.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: During your time in the office, that would have happened.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Is the pivot, does the pivot, the authenticity of the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: pivot change when it's right.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Before an election?
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Does it, does it look, does it run the risk
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: of looking like a government otherwise would have done these things?
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, the PST was in the February budget, right?
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: It's not like something new. Thought it was a good idea,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: brought it in, defended it, defended it, realized, oh crap,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: we have.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: To go to voters. Maybe we should do this.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Does it, undermine the legitimacy of the pivot when it
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: occurs right before an election? I mean, I guess it
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: didn't in 2024, but does it run that risk?
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, if you want to, you know, dissect every
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: single one of these ones, we can do this, but
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: we can look at the PST expansion. I think that
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: one is an example of something where the trade war,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: you know, it had been sort of simmering in the background.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: We hadn't heard a ton from Trump earlier.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: In the year.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Everything changed in August, right? Like the trade war, it
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: turned into something entirely different and bigger at the end
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: of August. And I think it gripped not just British Columbians,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: but Canadians right across the country with how serious this is.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: And I suspect that that had a lot to do
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: with the pivot on the PST expansion because they are
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: looking for ways to make things easier for businesses and
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: people right now.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: We don't have to go through all of them.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Here's what Robbie Kalon said when he was asked that
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: question about all these last minute goodie announcements on the weekend.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Well, if we don't have things to announce on weekends,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: what are reporters going to do on weekends?
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: So there is, I mean, I'm sure we'd find some
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: stupid reporters making us fund Ronald McDonald house.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Get out of here, you guys.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: Um, The Ronald McDonald House one is really good. And
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: I think regardless of any sort of timing, that is
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: something that the BCNDP needed to do. And I don't
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: think there was a world where the BCNDP wasn't going
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: to do that one. It's a needed service. It's the
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: right thing to do. And it sounds like they worked
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: hard to find the resources for it.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Okay. Well, we're running already late on the show here.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: We're going to leave it there.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I did have just a couple of clips here of
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: John Rustad, chatting with him, and also Claire Ratte about
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the implications of Carolyn Finley resigning as leader. I'll play
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: those now and then go straight to the end of
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the show. So if you're done, you got what you needed,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: feel free to log off. If you'd like to hear
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: both of them, just be a couple minutes of audio
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: from them. Aileen, thanks so much for being here. And
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: thank everyone for listening. Holy moly, stay with us each
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and every day. There's a lot happening in BC politics.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Here is John Rustad and Claire Ratte.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: I think she's done the right thing here by stepping down,
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: especially in the face of an imminent election and what
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: we need to do to come together to replace this
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: NDP government.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: What does it mean for you next? Are you going
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: to come back? What does it mean for you?
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean, technically, I'm not even a
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: member of caucus at the moment, although I'm still a
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: member of the party. And so we'll have to see
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: what comes in the days ahead. and who ends up
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: coming out in terms of a leader. But my objective
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: has not changed from last December when I stepped down
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: from being leader, which is we need to make sure
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: that we do everything we can to come together to
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: fight this NDP government, to replace the NDP government, to
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: put a conservative government in place in British Columbia.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Do you think she waited too long to accomplish that,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: or is it still salvageable in your mind?
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: Well, I think it's obvious that the more time we had,
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: the better, But, you know, there's no wrong time to
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: do the right thing. And she's done the right thing
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: here now in terms of it. And I think she's
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: given us a chance to be able to pull this
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: thing together and show to the province that we are
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: a group that can take on this NDP, that we've
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: got some great ideas we'll bring forward, and we will
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: be able to put up a very good campaign.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: I just really want to see us coalesce and be
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: able to prepare for this election and to be able
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: to show British Columbians what we're capable of. I think
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: that we have done that. You know, when you look
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: at our track record as official opposition, I think we've
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: been the most effective opposition in a very long time
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: in this province. And our record speaks to that. Now,
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: you know, I recognize that British Columbians are probably feeling
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: a little bit fearful based on a lot of the
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: internal drama that's happened recently, but I'm hopeful that we
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: can show them that they don't have to be worried anymore.
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: And I, I, personally feel very strongly that we will.