Juno News - LIVE： BC Conservative Leadership Debate

00:00:00.000 British Columbia, a land of breathtaking beauty, towering mountains that touch the sky, endless forests that stretch to the horizon, crystal rivers, rugged coastlines, and world-class vineyards.

00:00:15.860 From the powder slopes of our interior to the mild green winters of Vancouver, where snow is a rare visitor, and the city enjoys one of the gentlest climates in all of Canada.

00:00:29.840 This is a province blessed like few others on Earth.

00:00:34.480 Our culture is rich, our tourism world-renowned, and our natural resources

00:00:40.720 among the most abundant anywhere. Forests, minerals, energy, agriculture,

00:00:47.680 and ports that open the door to the Pacific. British Columbia has everything it needs to be

00:00:54.080 an economic powerhouse, not just for our province but for all of Canada. Yet for too long, that

00:01:01.520 promise has been undermined. A decade of NDP government has delivered higher taxes, crushing

00:01:08.880 regulation and ideological insanity. Pipelines stalled, resource projects buried in red tape,

00:01:17.280 Property rights eroded through legislative negligence, court rulings, and policy experiments

00:01:24.320 that have left homeowners and investors uncertain. Housing is unaffordable, streets are less safe,

00:01:31.840 and families are struggling while the province's enormous potential sits idle. The result?

00:01:39.120 Record deficits, stalled growth, and a province that feels held back from the future it deserves.

00:01:46.640 Tonight, that changes. British Columbia needs bold, principled new leadership.

00:01:52.900 That is why we are here. On this stage, stand the candidates with the courage to defend their ideas

00:01:59.060 and go toe-to-toe with their opponents. Any one of these candidates could do a better job than

00:02:04.960 David Evey. The question is, who will you choose to become our next premier? A leader ready to

00:02:11.360 restore common sense, unlock our resources, protect property rights, fix

00:02:17.960 the housing crisis and put British Columbians first again. The deadline to

00:02:24.260 get a membership to the Conservative Party of British Columbia is fast

00:02:28.100 approaching and to vote in this race you need a membership. The decisions made by

00:02:34.040 the select few who have one will shape our province for a generation. Tonight

00:02:39.920 The conversation begins. Welcome to the first B.C. Conservative Leadership Debate.

00:03:00.000 Welcome to the first B.C. Conservative Leadership Debate hosted by Juneau News.

00:03:05.620 We are live here in the old capital of British Columbia, New Westminster.

00:03:10.820 My name is Aaron Gunn, Member of Parliament for North Island Powell River, and I am seated

00:03:15.720 here, yes, and I am seated here beside author and former B.C. Conservative Board Member

00:03:26.780 Lindsay Shepard. We will be your, yes, we will be your moderators this evening. And

00:03:35.740 my first question, though, isn't for any of the candidates, but it's for the audience

00:03:39.600 in this theater tonight. Who is ready and excited for a robust democratic debate?

00:03:46.080 All right. First, we will begin this evening as the patriotic Canadians that I know we

00:03:55.400 all are with the singing of our national anthem to be led by conservative mla bruce bandman bruce

00:04:01.780 can you make your way to the stage here ladies and gentlemen will you please stand and will you

00:04:13.020 join me, sing it loud and sing it proud, the anthem of our great nation.

00:04:17.500 Oh, Canada, our home and native land, true patriot love in all our sons' command, with

00:04:38.900 glowing hearts, we see thee rise, the true north, strong and free. From far and wide,

00:04:51.100 O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God, keep our land glorious and free.

00:05:08.900 O Canada, we stand on guard for Thee.

00:05:18.800 O Canada, we stand on guard for Thee.

00:05:30.460 thank you Bruce the order in which our four candidates appear on stage has been randomly

00:05:45.220 generated I will welcome the candidates on stage in that order the leadership contestants present

00:05:51.880 tonight are Mrs. Carrie Lynn Findley, former Conservative MP and Cabinet

00:05:56.880 Minister.

00:06:04.880 Mr. Ian Black, former BC Liberal MLA and Cabinet Minister.

00:06:13.880 Mr. Uri Thulmer, entrepreneur and Chancellor of Capilano University.

00:06:21.880 Mr. Warren Ham, contractor, helicopter maintenance engineer, and entrepreneur.

00:06:33.500 Thank you to these four individuals for seeing the value in putting their ideas out in the open

00:06:39.080 for not only B.C. Conservative members, but for all British Columbians.

00:06:44.340 And thank you for having the political courage to defend your beliefs, your principles, and your policies

00:06:50.440 on this stage here tonight.

00:06:53.600 And a reminder to those watching at home,

00:06:56.260 if you would like to vote in this leadership race

00:06:58.820 to make one of these individuals the next leader

00:07:01.140 of the B.C. Conservative Party and Premier of British Columbia,

00:07:04.440 you must purchase a B.C. Conservative Party membership

00:07:07.100 by April 18th by going to conservativebc.ca.

00:07:11.200 Our debate this evening will include opening statements,

00:07:14.860 rapid-fire questioning, long-form debate,

00:07:17.680 and finally, closing statements.

00:07:19.440 While we welcome audience participation in the form of applause, any disruptive behaviour will result in your removal by security.

00:07:28.720 We also remind candidates to please avoid speaking over one another and to limit making their points to the times that they are allotted to speak.

00:07:36.380 And we'll also have these red and yellow placards here, and these are not equity cards from the NDP convention.

00:07:43.240 these are

00:07:44.560 when you have 30 seconds left in your speaking time

00:07:48.500 you will be shown the yellow card

00:07:50.080 and the red card when your time

00:07:52.340 has expired

00:07:53.260 with that let's begin

00:07:56.180 with the opening statements

00:07:57.760 90 seconds per candidate

00:07:59.760 will go in the order that you are announced

00:08:01.720 so please start us off Mrs. Carrie Lynn Findley

00:08:04.500 90 seconds

00:08:05.440 well thank you in respect to Juno News

00:08:08.500 for promoting independent

00:08:09.900 conservative dialogue

00:08:11.140 I've only been a candidate under a conservative banner.

00:08:15.940 I'm a conservative by conviction, not convenience.

00:08:19.160 I was born in Ladysmith, one of six kids, to an electrician dad,

00:08:22.760 and I know that results mean more than words.

00:08:26.120 Like many volunteers that are conservative, we kind of do it all.

00:08:31.260 We get active in our communities, and we donate,

00:08:34.320 and in politics we pass laws that lift up and support workers and small business people.

00:08:39.880 the lifeblood of our economy. No crushing high taxes, reckless spending and high price

00:08:46.200 virtue signaling for us. So we need a true conservative to lead. I have the track record,

00:08:53.600 the lived experience, the litigation and parliamentary experience to bring BC back

00:08:58.200 to prosperity by governance efficiency and unleashing our resources. To make BC home again

00:09:05.120 for investment and optimism i'm a king's council civil litigator lawyer equity partner in law firms

00:09:12.400 as a business owner i understand workplace productivity and motivation i've served in

00:09:18.480 many roles among them minister of national revenue and on treasury board for two and a

00:09:24.160 half years i managed to work for us of over 55 000 and administered the nation's tax dollars

00:09:30.320 together with the Finance Minister and the PM at that time we brought in lower

00:09:36.000 taxes, we brought in income splitting for seniors, lowered the GST, tax-free

00:09:41.660 childcare benefits. Thank you Mrs. Finley. Teams in our nations I can lead here.

00:09:51.120 Mr. Ian Black, 90 seconds. Thank you. Good evening everyone and thank you for

00:09:56.460 being here. Across British Columbia I'm hearing the same thing everywhere I go

00:10:00.240 People are working hard, they're doing everything right, and yet they're feeling like they're falling behind.

00:10:05.240 And they're certainly ready for change, for leadership that can defeat the NDP government and get British Columbia back on track.

00:10:12.240 Housing's too expensive, costs keep going up, and for too many people it's getting harder to see a path forward.

00:10:18.240 The truth is, this didn't happen overnight.

00:10:20.240 It's the result of a government that's become too slow, too intrusive, and too disconnected from the realities of those of us every single day.

00:10:28.240 But here's what I believe. British Columbia has everything it needs to succeed.

00:10:32.160 We have the resources, the opportunity, and most importantly, we have you,

00:10:36.320 the people who can build this into the strongest economy in the country.

00:10:40.180 There are clear failures of this NDP government that need to be repealed,

00:10:44.040 like DRIPA and SOGI, an unsafe supply.

00:10:47.520 I will take a decisive, common-sense approach to fixing that,

00:10:50.820 but leadership is also about staying focused on the fundamentals,

00:10:54.460 what actually matters and what drives results for BC families.

00:10:57.380 my commitment is straightforward make BC make it the best place to invest to live

00:11:03.280 to work and to raise a family that means restoring confidence into our housing

00:11:07.500 market again so it can get built faster in a lower cost growing our economy

00:11:11.260 restoring investment and fixing the systems that are driving up costs for

00:11:14.960 people and if we do that people won't just get by they'll actually get ahead

00:11:19.040 once again and I know that this is possible because I've done it before and

00:11:23.320 I'm ready to do it again I'm focused on what brings us together and what will

00:11:27.120 grow our party. I have the leadership

00:11:29.280 needed to defeat the NDP

00:11:31.080 government because I've done it twice before

00:11:32.820 and we'll get British Columbia back on track. Thank you for

00:11:35.180 being here.

00:11:41.940 90 seconds to Mr.

00:11:43.440 Uri Fulmer. Thank you so much.

00:11:45.380 You know, I've been blessed to have had a number of roles

00:11:47.360 in British Columbia. I've both been an entrepreneur

00:11:49.480 like many of you, a community

00:11:51.460 volunteer, but the role that matters

00:11:53.380 to most to me is that I'm a dad

00:11:55.680 And I've got a four-year-old and a six-year-old sitting at home

00:11:58.140 who I promised could stay up and watch Dad on TV tonight.

00:12:02.260 Now, admittedly, I'm competing with, I think it's Frozen, Elsa and Anna,

00:12:06.960 and I'm competing with My Son Loves Mr. Beast on YouTube.

00:12:11.140 So he asked me, you know, Dad, is this going to be a super interesting evening to watch it?

00:12:15.760 And I said, you know, Hayden, I actually don't think it is.

00:12:18.600 And he said, why, Dad?

00:12:20.000 And I said, well, I'm going to sit with three other good conservatives

00:12:23.300 that we're really in violent agreement on most topics.

00:12:27.420 And you're going to hear that tonight.

00:12:28.480 You're going to hear that we all want to repeal DRIPA

00:12:30.260 because it's nonsense.

00:12:31.460 You're going to hear that we all are worried 0.72

00:12:32.700 Section 35 has become an indigenous veto. 0.99

00:12:35.400 You're all going to hear that we think

00:12:36.600 our health care system's in shambles.

00:12:38.500 You're all going to hear that we don't feel safe on our streets.

00:12:40.700 And you're all going to hear from all of us

00:12:42.400 that British Columbia has become unaffordable for everybody.

00:12:46.120 But none of that matters a hill of beans

00:12:48.040 if we can't get elected to make a change here.

00:12:51.300 And the thing that I bring to this

00:12:52.760 is I've actually gone out and done a deal.

00:12:55.620 And Dallas and I have agreed that we will not split the vote on the right of center.

00:12:59.660 Because in B.C., when we as conservatives split the vote, we lose.

00:13:03.700 1972, we got Dave Barrett.

00:13:05.760 1991 and 1996, we got Mike Harcourt and Glenn Clark,

00:13:09.740 and we lost a decade in British Columbia.

00:13:12.480 In 2017, we split the vote, and we lost again.

00:13:16.980 And in 2024, we split the vote, and we got David Eby, and the disaster there is today.

00:13:22.020 I'm the only one with a solution to that. Thank you.

00:13:25.020 Thank you.

00:13:30.100 Mr. Warren Hamm, 90 seconds.

00:13:34.400 My name is Warren Hamm, and I'm not here to manage decline.

00:13:38.100 I'm here to build a united and prosperous British Columbia.

00:13:41.740 For the past 30 years, I've been a contractor, a pilot, an aircraft engineer, and business owner.

00:13:47.000 I built things in this province, helicopters, homes, businesses, and opportunities for British Columbians, and it's been good to me.

00:13:55.620 But we're reaching a point where we can no longer possible for the next generation to have the same successes unless we make a change now.

00:14:07.880 I'm not a career politician.

00:14:10.040 I'm not an academic, and I haven't sat in the legislature, and I've never worked a political backroom.

00:14:16.400 However, I successfully challenged the government in the B.C. Supreme Court twice,

00:14:21.720 acting in bad faith and for misfeasance in public office.

00:14:25.400 I stood up for citizens from the outside,

00:14:28.360 and I'm ready to do it again from the inside for the next Premier

00:14:33.100 and protect every taxpayer dollar and property rights for all citizens.

00:14:37.900 as premier i will permanently freeze property taxes for those over 65 years of age

00:14:48.780 and will hold local government accountable

00:14:52.300 and have efficiency audits on staffing operations spending and service delivery

00:15:04.880 No more tax increases until local governments are held accountable.

00:15:09.680 Thank you, Mr. Hamm.

00:15:11.000 Thank you.

00:15:16.960 Okay, thank you, candidates.

00:15:19.000 We will now proceed with part one of the rapid fire section of this debate.

00:15:24.280 Candidates have been given placards with a green yes side and a red no side.

00:15:29.720 Lindsay and I will be asking a lightning round of questions to which candidates

00:15:34.280 will answer either yes or no and we're going to start off our debate with a

00:15:39.860 story that is broken here in British Columbia in just the past week where it

00:15:44.600 is now being reported that a confidence vote could take place in the provincial

00:15:48.840 legislature as early as may a vote that the NDP government could quite possibly

00:15:54.620 lose would you support the conservative caucus voting to bring it down the NDP

00:15:59.900 government and forcing an early election even if it meant suspending the

00:16:04.100 leadership race and potentially making interim leader Trevor Holford and not

00:16:08.240 yourself the next premier of British Columbia

00:16:15.400 thank you sooner the better under former BC conservative leader John

00:16:22.220 Rustad the caucus lost five MLA's who either left or were expelled by Rustad

00:16:27.860 as leader would you open the door to these former conservative MLA's that's

00:16:34.700 a blended question that's not a yes or no the caucus has to weigh in you can't

00:16:40.160 do that as a leader without consulting caucus I think if the question is would

00:16:43.640 we open the door but I don't wish usher them in TBD the audience can make with

00:16:49.100 at what they may.

00:16:50.980 Question number three.

00:16:52.360 Do you believe there should be a greater role

00:16:54.400 for the private sector in the delivery of health care

00:16:57.000 in British Columbia?

00:17:03.880 Do you have a bigger sign?

00:17:07.480 Would you, as Premier, scrap SOGI123?

00:17:11.540 as premier would you be open to raising taxes on British Columbians there's no room

00:17:25.400 the federal liberals have made it easier to buy a cigarette than lower harm options like

00:17:34.820 nicotine pouches do you support access to nicotine harm reduction products in convenience stores

00:17:40.520 Nicotine? Inconvenient stores? Yeah, okay. I'm not a smoker. I don't know these things.

00:17:49.200 As long as they're checking ID.

00:17:50.300 Yeah.

00:17:51.300 Okay, next question. As Premier, would you be willing to use the notwithstanding clause

00:17:56.380 to overrule court decisions you viewed as judicial overreach and contrary to the interests

00:18:02.080 of British Columbians?

00:18:03.200 Every single time.

00:18:09.460 Did you support vaccine passports during COVID-19 lockdowns?

00:18:20.960 Would you support a strategic pact with 1BC or any other electoral arrangement that would

00:18:26.660 see the Conservative Party of BC run anything less than a full slate of candidates in every

00:18:32.500 bc riding in the next election were you satisfied with john rustad's caucus management style

00:18:47.700 i wasn't in caucus that only that's a fair question i wasn't there

00:18:54.740 thank you candidates now we will enter the long-form debate portion of the evening

00:19:00.180 Candidates will have 90 seconds to respond to the question put forth if a candidate references one of their fellow

00:19:07.200 Contestants during their response the person referenced will be permitted a 30-second rebuttal

00:19:15.300 And we should point out that the candidate actually has to be here to be able to have their 30-second rebuttal time

00:19:25.500 Sorry, I had to go off script for a second

00:19:27.980 Can I play the part of a candidate not here in that case?

00:19:31.980 I think there's some of us that would like to do that.

00:19:35.040 The first topic tonight is the economy, cost of living, and housing.

00:19:40.260 British Columbia is running record deficits while residents face rising costs across housing, energy, and everyday basic goods.

00:19:48.740 What specific spending cuts or revenue changes would you implement in your first budget,

00:19:54.000 and how would your plan directly lower the cost of living for British Columbians?

00:19:59.100 First to answer will be Mr. Fulmer, then Mr. Black, Mrs. Finley, and Mr. Ham.

00:20:04.300 Mr. Fulmer, you have 90 seconds.

00:20:06.640 This is very dear to my heart.

00:20:08.000 You know, I hear from young British Columbians all the time that they can't afford to be British Columbians,

00:20:12.180 and that absolutely breaks my heart.

00:20:14.800 You know, the biggest cost to most people isn't housing.

00:20:17.220 The biggest cost to most people is taxes, right?

00:20:19.860 Taxes take the biggest cut of your paycheck.

00:20:21.640 They take the first cut of your paycheck,

00:20:23.520 and they leave you what little there is afterwards.

00:20:25.820 So the first thing that government can do,

00:20:28.300 and one of the key reasons I'm a conservative,

00:20:30.480 is I believe in less government.

00:20:31.900 I believe in living conservative values,

00:20:34.080 but I believe in fundamentally less government

00:20:36.580 and keeping the government out of most of the things they do today.

00:20:40.440 And if we do that, we can put money back into British Columbians' hands

00:20:44.040 because nobody knows how to make their life more affordable than families.

00:20:49.300 So let's give them as much of their taxes back as we can

00:20:52.200 so they can spend it how they choose to make their life more affordable.

00:20:56.660 We do need to increase housing supply.

00:20:58.820 That's a no-brainer.

00:20:59.960 We also need to encourage British Columbians and young British Columbians

00:21:03.320 that they may need to go where housing is also cheaper.

00:21:06.740 I've traveled this province a couple of times now.

00:21:08.880 I think I'm the only person who's been to all 93 ridings.

00:21:11.440 And, you know, when I was in Cranbrook, they'd tell me you can get a brand-new townhouse for $349,000, $450,000 in the north.

00:21:19.120 Those are places where young British Columbians can get good, well-paying, family-supporting jobs, coupled with lower taxes and lower cost of housing.

00:21:27.860 That is a recipe for success in our amazing province.

00:21:31.400 That's what we need to do to make British Columbia more successful, refund people their money so that they can spend it themselves.

00:21:38.320 Thank you, Mr. Fulmer.

00:21:40.120 Now to Mr. Black, 90 seconds to you, sir.

00:21:45.120 You know, I've lost track of the number of conversations I've had with normally people my age and 20 odd years older

00:21:52.120 who are beside themselves as worried that their children and grandchildren in some cases are leaving British Columbia because they can't afford to live here.

00:21:59.120 And you've got a government that's been spending to an excess that's never been seen before.

00:22:02.120 So there's a list of things I would do, but I'll touch on two in the time that I have.

00:22:06.120 first of all, the civil service in this province has grown by over 55%, 60%, 60% of all jobs created

00:22:12.660 in the last decade have actually been government jobs, not from the private sector. So one of the

00:22:17.080 first things I would do to cut the costs in government is I would immediately cut 25% of

00:22:22.160 our civil service within the first two years with a commitment. Oh wait, there's more. With a

00:22:30.200 commitment to make further reductions to get it down to 2019 levels by the fourth year. The second

00:22:35.800 thing I would do is this. Now this is shocking as an anti-tax guy. The small business community,

00:22:40.540 bearing in mind I used to be the small business minister, they used to talk about taxes, but

00:22:44.100 every small business owner I've talked to in the last three months touring the province is way more

00:22:48.180 concerned about regulation and government getting in their way. So the second major promise I've

00:22:52.380 made here is that within the first hundred days of being premier of this province, I'll instruct

00:22:56.600 the small business minister to go on a mission to get the regulatory burden to 10% lower than

00:23:02.400 2017 levels within a two-year period thank you mr. black mrs. Finley 90

00:23:12.720 seconds to you thank you this is where experience does count because as I

00:23:18.020 alluded to in my opening statement when I was minister of revenue administering

00:23:22.560 all the tax money of our nation we came out of a crippling recession and we did

00:23:30.360 it by having leaner government, more freedom, we lowered corporate and

00:23:36.360 individual tax burden, we brought the GST down from seven to five percent, we

00:23:42.120 brought in income splitting for seniors, we got back to a balanced budget and

00:23:46.680 surplus. If I can be part of doing that for our whole country, I know I can do it

00:23:51.860 for our province. We need to have less government. Government is the problem

00:23:58.560 right now in BC 183 billion and climbing in debt debt servicing the number three line item in the

00:24:06.000 last budget we've had five downgrades of our credit rating that means that we're already paying more

00:24:13.280 interest on the debt than we were when they put the budget out just three weeks ago so we have

00:24:20.080 much to do i have said that i will remove the tax on gas and diesel that will bring costs down

00:24:26.080 everywhere and that i will also follow manitoba's lead and take pst off of groceries we do that by

00:24:33.120 unleashing our resources and upping our revenues and leaning out government thank you mrs finley

00:24:42.400 and finally to uh you sir mr ham for 90 seconds thanks i have two daughters uh both make great

00:24:49.840 money both nurses they have their own businesses two jobs both single and not

00:24:55.080 able even together to afford a home in a small community where I live in the

00:24:59.500 Kootenays so the cost of housing is just out of control at City Hall we've grown

00:25:06.080 City Hall four times in the last 20 years even though the population has

00:25:10.240 only increased by 33% so government at the City Hall level and municipal level

00:25:16.420 is too high, and the cost to build anything is just excessive.

00:25:22.280 The fact that this province and the government says that they're going to build affordable housing

00:25:28.580 is really a fallacy.

00:25:30.020 Government's not capable of building affordable housing, never mind affordable green housing.

00:25:35.180 When government gets involved in the housing sector, costs rise by 300% or 400%

00:25:40.380 because it's a government project.

00:25:42.100 So we have to take the time to support small business and the private sector

00:25:47.240 and make sure that they have the tools that they need to actually build affordable housing

00:25:51.740 so people like my daughters are able to afford a home in this province.

00:25:55.840 Thank you, Mr. Ham.

00:25:56.960 Thank you.

00:26:12.100 our next topic is property rights and aboriginal title here's the question how would you balance

00:26:22.920 indigenous land claims and treaty rights with the need for legal certainty for homeowners

00:26:27.880 businesses and resource development in british columbia first to answer will be mr ham then

00:26:34.160 mrs finley mr black and mr pulmer mr ham 90 seconds thanks we need to replace

00:26:41.980 DRIPA after it's repealed with a transparent framework that respects

00:26:49.060 indigenous constitutional rights under Section 35 and restores provincial

00:26:53.980 authority over land use and mineral rights. Clear consultation timelines and

00:26:59.980 hard deadlines, no NDAs, and every document should be made public. 150

00:27:05.680 families in Richmond are wondering if they still own their homes, mortgage

00:27:09.640 lenders are refusing to lend and development financing has collapsed this isn't abstract

00:27:15.720 policy this is people's lives and we appeal to the cowichan decision aggressively all the way

00:27:22.360 to the supreme court of canada if necessary thanks mrs finley on to you thank you and i need to tell

00:27:33.240 you a little story because in the late 90s i was suddenly widowed i had a six and seven year old

00:27:39.160 was a single mom and I moved into a leasehold property on Musqueam land in

00:27:46.440 South Vancouver and it had been a peaceful neighborhood but a year after I

00:27:51.680 moved in they changed the taxing authority from the city of Vancouver

00:27:55.420 based on market value to the Musqueam then the BC government stepped in and

00:28:02.200 they changed the BC Assessment Act and said you will no longer be taxed on

00:28:06.120 fair market value you will be taxed as though you had a property that was

00:28:10.560 freehold off reserve taxes went up triple then there was a dispute over the

00:28:17.040 amount of money we should pay each year we made an offer Musqueam didn't accept

00:28:22.140 it they wouldn't meet with us and they sued us a hundred and fifty families in

00:28:28.080 a neighborhood now found themselves in a costly litigation lawsuit because I was

00:28:33.700 a lawyer, and I was invested, I ended up leading that team to the BC Supreme Court, BC Court

00:28:40.820 of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada, and we won for those leaseholders, and I'm 1.00

00:28:46.080 saying, we must get rid of DRIPA, yes, we must respect history, but we have a collective 1.00

00:28:52.080 history to respect in BC, and 95% of us can't be left out in the cold just because 5% Indigenous 0.97

00:29:01.080 won a court case out of Richmond. That applies to all the province not just in

00:29:06.120 Richmond. So we need to be on guard. Thank you.

00:29:14.000 Mr. Black. You know this has been an interesting experience in one way that's

00:29:19.680 sort of amusing. The fact that every single person in this room knows the

00:29:22.960 name of a specific piece of legislation is rather shocking. That's never happened

00:29:27.200 before but the anxiety that goes with that is very very real. As I've been

00:29:30.860 traveling across the province. There's a gentleman named Mike in Langley. There's a gentleman named

00:29:35.120 Devinder up in Prince George. And the anxiety that people are feeling around private property rights

00:29:39.380 is very, very real. And it's unprecedented. It's leaving British Columbians asking a question that

00:29:44.320 I never thought I'd hear. And the question is, who actually owns British Columbia? Is it six million

00:29:49.600 citizens or is it 300,000 First Nations? And we are in a position now where we have no choice but

00:29:55.060 to repeal DRIPR. We have no choice but to repeal Section 8.1 of the Interpretations Act. And I

00:29:59.600 believe we've got no choice but to go to the other premiers in this country and ask them to look at

00:30:05.080 opening up section 35 of our constitution to reinsert a little section that says

00:30:09.700 that little section into our constitution that says accept private property rights when it

00:30:16.600 comes to indigenous rights and titles so that this never ever ever has to be brought up again

00:30:21.300 so that nobody questions about whether the fundamental underpinning of every western

00:30:25.020 democracy is private property rights and we never have to find ourselves here again but

00:30:29.160 But we do need to move forward thereafter with a system that's got clarity and timelines

00:30:33.340 and partnerships, and we have to rethink this whole approach.

00:30:36.260 And when I'm entrusted with the job of Premier, that will be one of the first things we have

00:30:39.080 to tackle.

00:30:42.080 Thanks.

00:30:43.080 Mr. Fulmer?

00:30:47.240 Let me be incredibly clear.

00:30:49.040 If this is not the biggest issue of our lifetimes, I don't know what is.

00:30:54.180 before in Canadian history, since Confederation, have your private property rights been challenged

00:31:00.480 by your government. This is an outrage in our province, and it needs to be dealt with,

00:31:07.980 and it is going to take courage, my friends. It is going to take a Premier who is prepared

00:31:11.920 to stand up, be courageous. There will be tens of thousands of people protesting on

00:31:17.700 the lawn of the legislature, but somebody is going to have to stand up, make sure DRIPA

00:31:22.040 is repealed, make sure all of the legislation that surrounds it is repealed, enshrine private

00:31:27.820 property rights in legislation, go to the feds and make sure that we make clear that

00:31:33.600 private property rights are a constitutional right, and we need to remind indigenous people

00:31:38.300 that section 35 is consultation, it is not a veto over British Columbia, and we've got

00:31:44.500 to do it now.

00:31:52.040 Okay, and we are now going to thank you candidates for those answers.

00:31:58.380 Aren't they doing a great job?

00:31:59.540 What do you guys think?

00:32:03.300 We are now going to take a very brief break just to give the candidates a moment to regroup.

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00:34:49.760 Thank you for coming out, and good luck to every candidate who put their name forward.

00:35:05.760 As a reminder, candidates have been given placards with a green yes and a red no.

00:35:11.760 Aaron and I will be asking a lightning round of questions to which candidates will answer either yes or no.

00:35:17.760 know. Okay. Thank you, Lindsay. The first, or the 11th rapid fire question. Would you follow the

00:35:26.160 lead of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe in opposing

00:35:31.400 the federal liberal gun confiscation scheme and refusing to dedicate police resources to enforcing

00:35:37.980 it? What a waste of money. As Premier, would you continue to permit and allow drug injection

00:35:47.680 sites, also known as safe injection sites, in British Columbia.

00:35:56.660 As Premier, would you support ending the ICBC auto insurance monopoly and allowing competition

00:36:03.380 from the private sector?

00:36:10.420 Do you agree with Danielle Smith's Bill 26 that banned surgical sexual transitions for

00:36:17.300 children as premier would you end DEI policies including race and gender based

00:36:29.060 hiring in the public service and commit to hiring solely based on merit have you

00:36:40.160 participated in land acknowledgments that describe British Columbia as

00:36:44.540 unceded territory over the past few weeks British Columbia has received a

00:36:54.080 series of historic credit downgrades would you credit rating downgrades would

00:36:59.660 you be willing to make significant cuts to the size of BC's public service into

00:37:04.400 in order to rein in what is now the largest deficit in BC history

00:37:10.040 Should non-citizen permanent residents be allowed to vote in party leadership races? 0.64

00:37:18.760 Say that again, please. 0.80

00:37:20.480 Should non-citizen permanent residents be allowed to vote in party leadership races? 0.98

00:37:26.620 It's not our call. 0.98

00:37:28.300 It's not up to us.

00:37:30.640 Well, the party decides, isn't it?

00:37:33.320 Are you asking that from a party standpoint?

00:37:36.700 From a legal standpoint, I'm not sure.

00:37:38.600 From a party standpoint, I think, would be the question.

00:37:42.420 I have no problem with it.

00:37:45.340 I say yes.

00:37:47.200 So, sorry, the question was, should permanent residents be allowed to vote in the conservative party leadership?

00:37:52.020 In party leadership races, yeah.

00:37:53.700 They're allowed to now.

00:37:54.900 Yeah, they're allowed to now.

00:37:55.620 As they are.

00:37:55.800 They're allowed to now.

00:37:56.760 I'm not comfortable with it, but it isn't just our decision.

00:38:00.340 Okay.

00:38:00.580 Back in 2018, the city of Victoria tore down the statue of the Father of Confederation and Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.

00:38:12.660 It was the first of many to be torn down across the country.

00:38:16.640 As Premier, would you be willing to follow the example of Premier Ford in Ontario and restore public access to the statue?

00:38:23.300 Absolutely.

00:38:23.840 Earlier this year, former Chilliwack School Trustee Barry Neufeld

00:38:32.800 was fined $750,000 by the BC Human Rights Tribunal

00:38:37.860 for expressing views in which he criticized child gender transitions

00:38:41.520 and the SOGI-123 curriculum.

00:38:44.040 Would you abolish the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal?

00:38:47.460 Yes.

00:38:49.780 But I'd like to explain.

00:38:51.520 There are legitimate human rights complaints that should have a form of tribunal to bring forward.

00:38:59.140 However, what happened to Barry is untenable, and that tribunal is completely out of line,

00:39:05.440 should not have the power to levy life-ruining fines, and he should never have been fined for his beliefs.

00:39:11.880 Okay.

00:39:15.020 We are now going to get back into the long-form portion of our debate.

00:39:19.220 you will recall that candidates have 90 seconds to respond to the questions they put forth,

00:39:24.080 and if a candidate references one of their fellow contestants who happened to be here

00:39:27.940 during their response, that person referenced will be permitted a 30-second rebuttal.

00:39:34.780 Our next topic is crime and public safety.

00:39:38.520 The question is, under the federal Liberals and provincial NDP,

00:39:43.220 public safety has deteriorated.

00:39:45.540 Repeat violent offenders roam free.

00:39:47.600 hard drug use was decriminalized, and we see a toxic fusion of money laundering, 0.66

00:39:53.360 organized crime, and ethnic extortion. What specific actions would you take to 0.79

00:39:58.940 dismantle these criminal networks, lock up violent offenders, and restore public

00:40:03.620 safety in British Columbia? First to answer will be Mrs. Finley, then Mr.

00:40:09.140 Fulmer, Mr. Hamm, and Mr. Black. Mrs. Finley, 90 seconds. Thank you. Well as

00:40:15.060 parliamentary secretary to justice I did bring in and shepherded through the

00:40:20.020 legislation Safe Streets and Communities Act and that was to specifically target

00:40:25.340 repeat violent offenders violent crime in Canada went down by about 35% because

00:40:31.620 of that unfortunately NDP liberal coalitions have drawn that back to where

00:40:37.080 now we have crime disorder chaos and it doesn't have to be this way we have a

00:40:43.740 a criminal code that is purely federal, but administration of justice is provincial. In

00:40:49.860 our administration, under a previous NDP government, they changed the charge threshold and went

00:40:56.920 from a reasonable likelihood of conviction to a substantial likelihood of conviction,

00:41:02.100 which I would reverse because what it's meant is that criminals think BC is a great place

00:41:07.100 to come because they get charged less, and when they are charged, they do less time.

00:41:12.900 This catch-and-release policy is supposed to be for fishing, not for criminals.

00:41:19.560 We don't have all that many criminals in Canada, but they're very, very busy and very prolific,

00:41:24.820 and we need to keep them behind bars, especially when they're violent and repeat.

00:41:31.140 Thank you.

00:41:33.140 Mr. Fulmer?

00:41:36.140 As an avid fisherman, I'm not even sure I agree with that on the catch-and-release fishing.

00:41:40.420 That's another topic.

00:41:41.420 Look, this is the issue I hear all around the province.

00:41:44.040 British Columbians are fearful in the streets in their own communities.

00:41:47.200 They pay taxes.

00:41:48.220 They pay taxes so that police enforce laws.

00:41:51.520 And when people break the law, they get taken to jail.

00:41:53.960 It's that simple.

00:41:54.960 We live in one of three provinces in Canada.

00:41:57.260 It's Arseneau, Brunswick, and Quebec, where the police cannot lay criminal charges.

00:42:01.800 Let me say that again.

00:42:03.040 The police in British Columbia cannot lay criminal charges.

00:42:05.980 It's absolutely unacceptable.

00:42:07.280 we need to have the police actually lay criminal charges

00:42:10.280 keep people in jail

00:42:11.620 we need an expedited track for repeat offenders

00:42:14.020 so that people who commit the same crime more than once

00:42:16.840 get access to justice faster

00:42:19.200 and get kept in jail longer

00:42:21.540 it's that simple

00:42:22.700 we need more police on the streets

00:42:24.840 and we don't need them filling in forms

00:42:26.760 we need more police on the front line of policing

00:42:29.360 walking a beat 0.95

00:42:30.540 making sure British Columbians are safe

00:42:32.580 the extortion crisis is out of hand

00:42:34.680 and if you believe it's a South Asian issue

00:42:36.720 you've missed the boat on this, this is about all British Columbians

00:42:40.480 and nobody feeling unsafe in their own home

00:42:44.040 but I'll leave you with one thing, remember that we have a premier in this province

00:42:48.260 David Eby, who wrote a book called How to Sue the Police

00:42:52.520 and so you wonder why we're in the position we are today

00:42:55.920 he sure ain't going to win a Nobel Prize for that book, but remember he wrote that book

00:43:00.340 and he stands by that book and that's why we are where we are and that's what we've

00:43:04.360 got to change good people

00:43:05.240 Mr. Ham

00:43:11.720 Well, crime's rampant in the Kootenays

00:43:14.640 I've had break-ins in three different buildings

00:43:17.460 I've had an encampment move into my basement

00:43:20.140 of one of my buildings when I was out of town for three weeks

00:43:23.000 It's real, and the police couldn't do anything about it

00:43:25.600 The police come, couldn't remove them

00:43:27.680 We had to remove them out of the building ourselves

00:43:29.880 We need to give police the tools they need

00:43:32.400 And like Mr. Fulmer said

00:43:34.400 you've got to be able to charge them, not allow

00:43:36.940 the crowd to charge them, but

00:43:38.580 the police themselves. We have to end

00:43:40.960 catch and release, give the tools

00:43:42.960 again to the police that they need

00:43:45.080 and

00:43:45.960 support communities, have a crime

00:43:49.080 watch where people can report in

00:43:50.760 crimes and have something done about it

00:43:53.060 in real time.

00:43:59.180 Mr. Black?

00:44:01.280 There's something very unnerving 1.00

00:44:02.780 when you're sitting with a group of in these cases I'm thinking of grown men

00:44:06.720 throughout the Fraser Valley and in Surrey where you were asking their

00:44:11.840 opinion on a variety of concerns they have about what's going on British

00:44:14.560 Columbia and the look in their eyes is fear. They're worried for the families

00:44:18.040 and they're worried for the businesses and it's you know the bullets are flying

00:44:20.900 and the fact that we're in that spot is just it's a head-scratcher for me and

00:44:24.780 it's utterly unacceptable. I've discussed what we might do about it specifically

00:44:28.780 on the extortion side and we've got to get some tools into the hands of police

00:44:31.700 that they don't currently have.

00:44:32.880 We've got to get high-definition cameras at major intersections

00:44:35.740 and business corridors where people gather.

00:44:37.860 We've got to use drone technology.

00:44:39.680 It's faster to get them in the air.

00:44:41.080 It protects our men and women in uniform.

00:44:43.300 We've got to take advantage of that.

00:44:44.420 We've got to take advantage of what's been done in other jurisdictions.

00:44:46.680 Quebec's a great example when they crack down on organized crime.

00:44:49.920 And we've got to go to school in those jurisdictions as well.

00:44:51.980 And we've got to expand our provincial police force.

00:44:54.240 It's 1,000 officers.

00:44:55.420 Well, it was 1,000 officers 10 years ago

00:44:57.140 when we had 1.2 fewer million British Columbians.

00:44:59.840 so there's there's lots of work that we can done there but I also want to

00:45:03.520 quickly cross over here to what are the root causes of our criminal problem is

00:45:07.260 mental health and drug addiction that's untreated. One of the first provinces I

00:45:11.240 made was to redevelop the 244 acres of the Riverview lands to actually take

00:45:15.340 people off the streets who cannot take care of themselves it is not civilized

00:45:25.340 and it is not a conservative value to allow people to be on the streets like

00:45:28.700 that and it is a very very high priority for me but here's what happens when you

00:45:31.700 do that. You'll make sure that you get the patients in Riverview and you get

00:45:34.940 the criminals in jail. Thank you.

00:45:42.340 Okay thank you candidates for those answers. On to our next topic, resource

00:45:47.580 development and pipelines. British Columbia is endowed with an almost

00:45:51.820 unimaginable amount of natural resource wealth. Forestry and mining, fishing and

00:45:57.340 agriculture, natural gas. What is your strategy to unleash the wealth of

00:46:02.320 British Columbia's resources and make this province one of the wealthiest

00:46:06.280 jurisdictions in the entire world? First to answer it will be Mr. Black, then Mr.

00:46:12.640 Ham, Mr. Fulmer and Mrs. Finley. Mr. Black, to you for 90 seconds.

00:46:17.260 You know, I have one of my favorite questions to take when I've been

00:46:19.780 traveling around the province is, where do you stand on pipelines? And I'd love

00:46:23.620 to tell people that I'm the guy who charted an Air Canada flight from

00:46:26.320 Vancouver to Edmonton and filled it with 200 business leaders, indigenous leaders,

00:46:29.920 labour leaders and community leaders so we could fly to see an NDP Premier and let them know that

00:46:34.800 65% of British Columbia hasn't lost its mind and we actually want to get our natural resources to

00:46:39.360 Tidewater and stop selling them to the Americans at a 30% discount. So I'm a big believer in this stuff.

00:46:47.920 You know we've got 43,000 kilometres in this province, a very very safe pipeline so you kind

00:46:52.320 of have me at hello on the concept but let's talk about Forestry because you asked what we

00:46:56.160 have to do. DRIPA is a big problem in the forestry sector especially at the time I've spent up at

00:47:01.280 actually in your neck of the woods Aaron up in Campbell River. We're dealing with some other

00:47:04.400 folks in the forest industry talking about how a permit with an established forestry company

00:47:08.880 who's been doing this a long time a permit used to take four to six months as like five years ago

00:47:13.840 it's now 24 to 36 months. A large part of that is DRIPA but it's also the moving target of regulation

00:47:20.240 that this government has imposed on an industry that's struggling to survive. We are cutting less

00:47:24.640 than half of the annual allowable cut that the seaforester in this province

00:47:29.620 says can be safely taken out of the woods because this government has made it

00:47:32.860 unprofitable for these companies the jobs are going the mills are closing

00:47:35.860 Crofton's a great example 350 family supporting jobs that community would be

00:47:40.000 devastated this can be changed by a government who understands this who

00:47:43.720 understands and believes in these natural resources sector can fix permitting

00:47:47.080 can make the regulatory regime workable and get these folks back to work thank

00:47:51.540 you thank you mr. black and over to you mr. ham 90 seconds mr. black just said it well that's i

00:48:01.680 agree with him we need to get we need to partner with our our neighbors to the north and the yukon

00:48:06.080 look to build power lines to the south to have energy into the yukon and back also work with

00:48:13.500 danielle smith next door for pipelines and over into saskatchewan we want to improve our ports

00:48:18.720 and rail systems so that we can get products to market and work and make it strong in the West.

00:48:26.100 Stephen Harper started it years ago, and I think it's important that we work with our neighbours

00:48:30.100 and build a really strong Western Canada and Canada. Thanks.

00:48:37.860 Thank you, Mr. Hamm. Now to Mr. Former, 90 seconds.

00:48:41.300 Thank you. Look, we are blessed in this province with the most abundant resources in the world.

00:48:47.320 You look at a country like Norway, Norway has less resources than British Columbia,

00:48:51.920 but they harvested three times more trees than we did.

00:48:54.860 Norway has a $2.1 trillion in the bank, their sovereign fund.

00:49:00.880 And by the NDP's own numbers in a couple of years, we'll be a quarter trillion dollars in debt.

00:49:06.340 And the problem is we've got a premier and a cabinet in the NDP who don't believe in natural resources.

00:49:12.300 And you ask the premier a question about natural resources, you kind of get slightly sweaty.

00:49:17.320 He looks at his feet, and there's a vein just here that starts to pop out a little bit.

00:49:22.700 And you ask the Minister of Forestry in British Columbia about trees,

00:49:27.540 and the last tree that he met was his Christmas tree.

00:49:32.160 That's why we're in the place we're at, and that's what's got to change.

00:49:34.980 My colleagues referenced we need to expedite permits, we need to solve indigenous claims.

00:49:39.240 Of course we need to do all of that.

00:49:41.000 But you know what we also need?

00:49:42.540 We need a premier who's prepared to stand in the doorway of the premier's office

00:49:46.100 and handwrite permits to get resource development going.

00:49:49.960 And when I'm Premier, if I have to find carbon paper and a pen

00:49:53.320 and handwrite permits to get resource development going,

00:49:56.660 to get good family-supporting jobs for British Columbians again,

00:50:00.060 and to make our province the most prosperous province in the country

00:50:03.580 and the most envy of the Confederation and the envy of the world,

00:50:08.180 then that's what I'll do.

00:50:09.300 It's going to take courage, people, but I've got it.

00:50:11.300 Thank you, Mr. Fulmer.

00:50:15.300 Mrs. Finley, finally to you for 90 seconds.

00:50:19.300 It's clear that we need a fighter as the leader of the 0.99

00:50:23.300 Conservative Party of BC. We need to get rid of the NDP, which is the biggest

00:50:27.300 barrier to us being prosperous again. If it need

00:50:31.300 be, we need to have a fighter who will go behind enemy lines, because that's exactly

00:50:35.300 what we're talking about when we're talking about our resources.

00:50:39.300 I went to a forestry town hall in Duncan, the saddest meeting I've ever been at.

00:50:44.600 Instead of going to work the next morning, they were talking about extension of their EI benefits.

00:50:49.940 Our processing plants have shut down.

00:50:52.060 Our refineries have shut down.

00:50:53.660 And at the latest municipal conference, David Eby called forestry and ministry sunset industries.

00:51:00.880 They're only sunset industries because he's decided ideologically that that's what he wants.

00:51:06.560 Is that what you want?

00:51:07.780 I don't believe so.

00:51:09.300 No, we want to... I think I wasn't supposed to encourage that.

00:51:13.540 Excuse me, I just did it. It was natural.

00:51:16.360 But we need to bring our processing back into B.C. 0.99

00:51:20.340 We need refineries back in B.C.

00:51:22.500 We're selling our oil to the states at a discount.

00:51:25.660 They refine it and sell it back to us at world prices.

00:51:28.840 We've become raw log exports instead of processing our own here.

00:51:33.060 We need that pipeline up north, but we also need a tanker to come and pick it up,

00:51:37.440 and E.B. doesn't like that idea.

00:51:39.300 So we have 200 U.S. tankers a year going up and down the west coast of Vancouver Island.

00:51:45.200 We can do this, and B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan should be a Western Canadian powerhouse together.

00:51:52.900 Thank you.

00:51:56.460 All right, our next question.

00:52:03.060 For many British Columbians, the dream of home ownership has never seemed further away.

00:52:08.580 In Metro Vancouver, only 6% of young people believe home ownership is achievable,

00:52:13.460 and Vancouver is consistently ranked among the top five least affordable major housing markets

00:52:19.060 in the world. Other cities like Victoria are not far behind. What is your plan to make housing

00:52:24.900 more affordable in British Columbia, and do you believe current home prices need to come down?

00:52:31.140 The order for this question is Mr. Fulmer, Mr. Black, Mrs. Findlay, and Mr. Ham.

00:52:37.620 So 90 seconds to Mr. Fulmer.

00:52:40.100 Thank you.

00:52:40.660 Look, this is a problem of our own creation.

00:52:43.540 We now know that in constructing a new home or a new condominium,

00:52:47.480 one-third of the cost is directly attributable to one of the levels of government.

00:52:54.020 One-third.

00:52:55.640 So the easiest way we can make housing more affordable for British Columbians

00:53:00.320 and young British Columbians is to get the government the heck out of the way.

00:53:05.740 Right?

00:53:07.620 And this is the same point I made earlier.

00:53:10.360 The role of the government is not to tax people into submission.

00:53:14.400 The role of the government is to enable.

00:53:17.200 And that's where the government in B.C. has lost its way.

00:53:20.400 The NDP has found every way to take money out of your pockets,

00:53:23.940 and housing is just another one of those examples

00:53:26.940 where British Columbians are paying the price for poor housing policy

00:53:31.580 and for poor government mismanagement of the economy,

00:53:35.640 and they're taking it out on you.

00:53:36.900 and they're taking it out on young British Columbians

00:53:39.180 and young British Columbians are leaving

00:53:41.160 in numbers we have never seen before

00:53:43.220 who would want to leave

00:53:45.200 this province if you didn't have to

00:53:47.260 or if you couldn't imagine a life

00:53:49.360 better and more affordable

00:53:51.400 somewhere else, we have got to fix

00:53:53.340 this, this is the best

00:53:54.860 our brightest, our youngest, our most energetic

00:53:57.480 our most enthusiastic

00:53:58.780 and the people who are going to pay taxes

00:54:01.080 to support all of us as we

00:54:03.220 age and need more resources

00:54:04.560 we've got to keep them in British Columbia

00:54:06.460 And if we don't take government out of the housing sector, it is not going to happen.

00:54:10.620 This is government's fault, and the good news is government can fix it.

00:54:18.220 Mr. Block?

00:54:19.420 You know, I get asked by a lot of people, why did I decide to leave the business community

00:54:24.680 and put my hat back in the ring for politics?

00:54:27.040 And I got a very personal motivation for it.

00:54:29.280 And that's because of my three children, two of them are in Toronto.

00:54:32.260 They're 26 and 24, young engineer and a young banker.

00:54:34.920 those jobs used to be here but when I talked to my older boy who's looking to

00:54:38.700 buy in a house I said well why come back to BC says I couldn't afford to come

00:54:41.760 back so you want to know why I'm standing on the stage it's one great

00:54:44.580 motivation but you know there's a lot of blame to go around on that one and

00:54:47.940 you're right the provincial governments involved but sort of the cities you've

00:54:51.000 got CACs and DCC's fancy terms for taxes that account to the 30 odd percent in

00:54:55.320 fact one of the developers I met with last week says a number when you

00:54:57.780 include the regulatory bird it's 42% so think of a million dollar condo which

00:55:02.220 was unthinkable all those years ago. 420,000 of that is tax. Tax. And so I've

00:55:08.460 got a couple of ideas there. I think we have to cap the DCCs and CACs as a fixed

00:55:12.240 cost to the hard costs of building, so to provide some certainty to the

00:55:15.580 development community, so they've got the courage to start building stuff again.

00:55:18.060 We've also got to get Metro Vancouver out of that business altogether, and we've

00:55:22.960 got to get the zoning back into the hands of the city, so the province stops

00:55:25.800 interfering and meddling in that area. But the big thing we've got to do is get

00:55:29.040 the provincial building code out of the way as well, which is causing a

00:55:31.500 tremendous amount of extra cost for the builders as they go about building but

00:55:35.640 we've also got these three taxes the speculation tax the vacancy tax the

00:55:39.240 foreign buyers tax and the short-term rentals all of those are having an

00:55:42.600 impact of housing as well and frankly they go against conservative principles

00:55:45.660 because if I've earned enough money to buy a second residence anywhere in the

00:55:48.900 world no government should be telling me how many days a year I have to stay in

00:55:52.080 it after I buy it with my own after-tax money those taxes all have to go

00:56:01.500 Mrs. Finley

00:56:03.820 Well, my colleagues here have already talked about bureaucratic bloat, but they're absolutely correct a lot of the

00:56:12.540 majority in some places of the cost of building new construction and housing is

00:56:18.900 gatekeepers

00:56:20.400 gatekeepers in the municipal governments which are a creature of the provincial government and it is the lack of money

00:56:27.380 frankly affordability is the number one issue along with property rights in BC

00:56:33.680 and has been and will be until we correct it we need more powerful

00:56:38.540 paychecks we do that in a circular economy by getting our resources

00:56:43.340 properly processed and refined and off to market then we have you may not make

00:56:49.580 more money but you'll have more money at the end of the day in your pocket if I

00:56:53.560 can bring down taxes and gas and groceries you'll have more money and

00:56:56.920 then when they come along with their wonderful ideas like a second mortgage

00:57:01.000 stress test which is very hard for people to qualify under you're going to

00:57:06.160 be in a better position to deal with it the fact the matter is their policies

00:57:10.600 are wrong-headed all over the place the Airbnb cutback that really hurt people

00:57:16.060 saying that you cannot own a second home or you have to live in that home to make

00:57:22.180 it an Airbnb. This is wrong. If you are able to invest, you've worked hard, you

00:57:28.360 should be able to invest where you choose. So we have to get rid of these

00:57:33.420 bureaucrats, we have to get rid of the gatekeepers, and then our kids will stop

00:57:37.860 saying they've got to go to Alberta to live.

00:57:44.860 Mr. Hamm? My friends have touched on most of the topics but I'll share a story

00:57:49.720 with you i was in a meeting in castle gar in the interior about six months ago and there were

00:57:55.920 developers there members from city hall as well as habitat for humanity and we spoke about the

00:58:01.340 cost of housing and the story that came out with habitat for humanity they built a sixplex it took

00:58:07.180 two years to build they were given the land they were given many of the materials and it still

00:58:12.160 cost $775 a square foot, which was unaffordable.

00:58:16.560 So on that note, we spoke about when government's involved in building affordable housing, the

00:58:23.480 price will be even higher.

00:58:24.820 And while they may decide to rent those units out once they're building affordable housing,

00:58:30.480 it's ultimately subsidized by the taxpayer.

00:58:33.080 So we need to make sure that we're creating an environment so that the private sector,

00:58:36.780 home builders, are able to build in real time and at a lower cost.

00:58:44.100 The B.C. building code that my friend mentioned,

00:58:47.100 we're building to a seismic standard in the interior of B.C.,

00:58:50.600 and that changed not that long ago.

00:58:52.620 Meetings with the housing minister were unsuccessful.

00:58:56.100 She was busily traveling and posting on YouTube

00:58:58.640 and didn't have time to meet to speak about things

00:59:01.660 that really matter to British Columbians, especially in the interior.

00:59:06.780 Thank you, Mr. Ham. On to the next question. Over 15,000 British Columbians. That is how

00:59:16.500 many have died from drug overdoses since the NDP took power in 2017. Their flagship so-called

00:59:24.080 harm reduction policies, which were also supported by the former BC Liberal Party, included

00:59:29.420 injection sites, the decriminalization of hard drugs, and the government provision of

00:59:33.960 opioids also known as safe supply. What is your plan for dealing with the addictions

00:59:39.080 crisis and how would it differ from that put forward by the former BC Liberals and current

00:59:44.680 NDP? The order for this round is Mrs. Finley, Mr. Fulmer, Mr. Hamm and then Mr. Black. Mrs.

00:59:51.960 Finley to you for 90 seconds. Well thank you. This is one of the reasons I firmly believe

00:59:56.520 that a tried and tested conservative who was talking against safe supply five years ago

01:00:02.200 and 10 years ago is the person who should lead this party.

01:00:06.320 Because the BC Liberals and BC United

01:00:09.480 slid into the mushy middle, as I like to call it,

01:00:12.580 and passed it when they supported decriminalization of drugs.

01:00:17.420 This is so harmful.

01:00:18.760 We've lost so many thousands of Canadians.

01:00:22.180 People getting free drugs, so-called safe supply.

01:00:24.940 Well, there is no such thing as safe supply of drugs.

01:00:28.000 And they are selling their supply.

01:00:30.480 We have a recovery society right here in New West called Open Door.

01:00:34.500 The person who had set up said that every one of his clients sell their free drugs to get harder drugs.

01:00:42.220 It's quite a profit when you get it for free in the first place.

01:00:45.260 I like the Alberta model.

01:00:46.740 It seems to have been doing very well, where we have more investment in bringing our loved ones home drug-free.

01:00:54.460 It cannot be this endless harm reduction, leaving people on the streets bent over.

01:00:59.860 We need to help our people who are suffering from addictions, and we need to give them a pathway to a brighter and more purposeful life.

01:01:09.620 I believe we can do it.

01:01:10.860 If we care, we can do it, and I will care for those vulnerable in our society.

01:01:16.900 Thank you.

01:01:18.540 Thank you, Mrs. Finley.

01:01:21.380 Over to Mr. Fulmer for 90 seconds.

01:01:23.880 Thank you.

01:01:24.420 I want to be really clear with people, because harm reduction is such a pretty term, and people get confused.

01:01:29.860 Harm reduction equals free drugs

01:01:32.260 Let's be incredibly clear

01:01:34.200 And I actually wish Caroline Elliott was here today 0.99

01:01:36.860 Because she's spoken in favor of quote unquote harm reduction

01:01:39.800 When what she meant to say was she was in favor of free drugs

01:01:43.280 She just used a way prettier term

01:01:44.780 But unfortunately she's not here to respond

01:01:47.660 Look, my faith calls on me to do this

01:01:50.640 When somebody is lying face down in a gutter

01:01:53.740 Addicted to drugs

01:01:54.700 Whether that is my brother or my sister or my neighbor

01:01:57.780 my faith calls on me to pick that person up

01:02:00.420 perhaps against their will

01:02:02.540 and make sure they get the treatment

01:02:04.540 that they need to recover

01:02:05.940 if it was my brother I would do that

01:02:08.300 if it was my sister I would do that

01:02:09.760 if it was your brother I would do that 0.50

01:02:11.160 if it was your sister I would do that

01:02:12.660 and if it was any of those people

01:02:17.240 I wouldn't say

01:02:18.000 well I think it's your civil right

01:02:19.340 to lie face down in the gutter

01:02:20.540 addicted to drugs

01:02:21.380 I would say I would put you over my shoulder

01:02:23.400 and I would get you the help you needed

01:02:25.140 we need recovery beds

01:02:26.580 we need treatment beds, we need detox beds

01:02:29.020 and we need them when people need them

01:02:30.860 we don't need wait lists for detox beds

01:02:33.680 we don't need wait lists for recovery beds

01:02:35.840 we need these things available 0.93

01:02:37.420 that is what caring conservatives do

01:02:40.140 that's what we need to do

01:02:41.880 thank you Mr. Fulmer

01:02:45.980 and you did mention another candidate

01:02:48.540 so we'll give them 30

01:02:49.540 actually sorry we're going to move on

01:02:51.940 I'll go down and answer for it

01:02:53.960 Sorry, they're moving on to Mr.

01:02:57.220 Sorry, I couldn't resist, folks.

01:02:58.780 Mr. Hamm, up for you for 90 seconds, sir.

01:03:02.080 Certainly, I align with my colleagues, but I'll share another story.

01:03:05.180 I met a pharmacist in one of the hotels that owns a few pharmacies,

01:03:09.180 one of them down on the east side, very close to the east side,

01:03:13.160 and he told me this wasn't happening at his pharmacy, but it was happening in others,

01:03:17.180 and what was happening was individuals were coming in with multiple prescriptions

01:03:22.320 from their doctors that they were taking to multiple pharmacies,

01:03:26.180 getting the free drugs that were providing them,

01:03:29.100 and then the pharmacists typically get $30, $20 or $30 as a prescription fee,

01:03:36.000 and pharmacists were giving cash back for each of these prescriptions.

01:03:39.520 So who knows where that money was going after they left,

01:03:43.240 but here we are supporting people that are vulnerable with free drugs,

01:03:48.140 and then there's a cash-back option available at the pharmacy.

01:03:51.300 So between the doctors, the pharmacies, and the people on the street, you know, we've got a problem even in that circle.

01:03:57.960 So I think it adds to the issue and needs to be resolved.

01:04:02.520 Thank you, Mr. Hamm.

01:04:04.460 And finally, Mr. Black, 90 seconds, sir.

01:04:07.580 There's probably no plank of my platform that I'm more passionate about than this one.

01:04:13.700 It was the very first thing we announced was, as I mentioned earlier, the redevelopment of the 244 acres of what used to be called the Riverview Hospital.

01:04:20.880 in my community, where I live. And the reason I went down this path is because I think we've

01:04:26.100 lost a piece of humanity. We step over people on the street. We didn't do that when I was a

01:04:29.560 wee kid. If somebody was lying on the street, you'd stop and say, are you all right? We don't do that

01:04:34.220 now. And so when I went down this path of wanting to redevelop the Riverview lands, I envision a

01:04:39.320 world-class facility of mental health and addictions recovery, of brain injury, and not just a research

01:04:46.140 center that would be an academic draw from around the world, but also facilities to take care of

01:04:50.780 people who are incapable of taking care of themselves and we have to also please

01:04:55.400 yeah we also have to we have to take a page for what's being done well

01:05:00.860 throughout the world models in Portugal models in Italy and San Patriano as an

01:05:04.600 example but also what's been done next door in Alberta and some of the

01:05:07.400 experiments that they've done there to so allow that we could have a hub and

01:05:11.300 spoke model here in British Columbia so that it's not just about the services

01:05:14.780 being available in the lower mainland we have people watching tonight from all

01:05:18.140 over British Columbia who are saying, well, wait a minute, we have these challenges in Fort St. John

01:05:21.980 and in Cranbrook and in Kelowna. We have to make sure that these facilities are available

01:05:26.180 throughout the province, but they are drawing on that center of excellence that I envision.

01:05:30.380 And by the way, one very quick point. This will cost billions of dollars, but you know where we're

01:05:34.040 going to get it? From the six and a half to eight million dollars a day,

01:05:38.180 a day that we are spending on that six blocks of the downtown east side.

01:05:42.040 That's over two and a half billion dollars a year.

01:05:45.340 Thank you, Mr. Black.

01:05:48.140 only two questions remain tonight here's the second to last question in the coming weeks

01:05:57.720 when bc conservative party members go to vote they will be doing so using a ranked ballot

01:06:03.000 excluding yourselves which of your competitors do you believe would also make great premiers

01:06:09.620 and conversely and conversely is there a specific candidate or two you believe members

01:06:18.000 should be warned against the the order for this question is mr. black mr.

01:06:28.740 former mrs. Finley 90 seconds to mr. black you know what I got to tell you

01:06:38.160 something I think there's something we need to remember with the greatest of

01:06:40.620 respect we need to remember that our opponent in this contest is the NDP

01:06:48.000 I have got some significant concerns about some of the stances

01:06:59.160 and recent history of some of the other people in this contest.

01:07:02.360 It's very unfortunate they're not here tonight to defend themselves

01:07:05.200 because I think they're meaningful.

01:07:08.120 I think that can be addressed in a fairly respectful way.

01:07:11.420 I honestly do.

01:07:12.340 I'm very disappointed that they're not here

01:07:14.380 because I do think there are some key differences about how we would lead.

01:07:17.100 what our values are, what our recent history is. But I'll tell you this, anyone

01:07:21.240 who's willing to put themselves forward for public office, who's willing to sit

01:07:24.420 here in front of a room full, we can't really see you all that well, of people

01:07:27.660 and be online and to put yourself out and express your ideas and be willing

01:07:31.560 to defend them, that is something that should be honoured, it should be

01:07:33.980 celebrated. And while I have concerns, we have to celebrate, so my commitment,

01:07:41.700 because I know you're looking for just a little raw meat in this one, so I'll

01:07:44.640 give you just a little bit, okay? I have been asked many times whether I would run, should I not be

01:07:50.420 successful in my endeavor that I'm pursuing at the moment. And the answer I've always given it is my

01:07:54.340 intent to do so. And I use that language, my intent, it's a tiny little bit of wiggle room for a very

01:07:59.020 good reason. Because I've been involved in six or seven of these in my life since I was a young

01:08:02.600 teenager. And there is occasion when the person who wins it looks at you and says, I hope I never

01:08:06.760 see you again in my life. It's like, oh dude, I'm not going to do that if you don't want me there.

01:08:10.180 So there is a little bit of that. But I also will tell you this, I'm concerned about some of the

01:08:13.860 people behind the campaigns of some of the folks who aren't here tonight. I'm

01:08:17.100 not going to be told what to do by Toronto. I'm not.

01:08:24.260 Next is Mr. Ham. Well I think your next leader is in front of you here one

01:08:31.400 through four and I think it's I think it's important to note that we have a

01:08:37.680 responsibility to show up here regardless of our experience to make

01:08:41.700 sure that we're able to answer your questions and earn your trust. The others not showing up,

01:08:47.260 I guess that's their decision, but that should tell you something.

01:08:56.620 Mr. Fulmer? You know, what I see on the stage here today, and I opened this by saying I thought

01:09:02.240 we would all be in violent agreement and bore my son to tears, and I'm sure we've in fact done that

01:09:07.960 and he switched back to Mr. Beast quite a long time ago.

01:09:11.020 But you've got four parents on the stage,

01:09:13.880 four compassionate conservatives

01:09:16.580 who believe in British Columbia,

01:09:18.800 who are all proud British Columbians,

01:09:20.400 and they envision a better British Columbia for everybody.

01:09:23.740 So, you know, I think I agree with Warren.

01:09:25.580 I think the next Premier of the province

01:09:27.380 is standing on this stage today.

01:09:29.280 And if it was any one of these people,

01:09:32.200 you know, I would run and run happily.

01:09:33.960 I ran in 2024 in the last election as a Conservative, proudly.

01:09:37.960 I'll run again as a conservative in the next election with any of these people.

01:09:41.540 What I don't want is our party to be taken over by liberals.

01:09:52.840 Let's be very clear.

01:09:54.900 BC United not only folded its tent, it set it on fire and then threw it off a cliff.

01:10:02.800 We are the conservative party.

01:10:04.540 We need to be led by conservatives who believe in conservative values

01:10:09.220 and will run a government under conservative values.

01:10:12.400 That is what we need to do.

01:10:13.720 And you know who those people are.

01:10:15.380 You know it. 0.97

01:10:22.280 Mrs. Finley? 0.80

01:10:24.720 Leaders lead by example.

01:10:27.140 Leaders are accountable.

01:10:29.040 Leaders should be able to explain and debate their positions.

01:10:32.960 Leaders should be able to do that with clarity and focus.

01:10:36.680 If you don't show up to a debate, it makes me wonder whether you have those abilities,

01:10:42.420 and there's no way we can know if they're not here to answer as we have been answering tonight.

01:10:47.820 I am proud to stand with these three gentlemen.

01:10:50.020 I think they all have something to offer, and they've been here, showed up.

01:10:56.080 If you don't show up for work, you shouldn't get that job.

01:10:59.880 It's really that.

01:11:02.000 I have said from the beginning of my campaign that I thought it was really important that

01:11:11.380 we have a Conservative as leader of the Conservative Party of BC.

01:11:15.720 That should not be an amazing concept in my mind.

01:11:19.660 And we have a couple of people who aren't here tonight who have a lot of explaining

01:11:24.660 to do in terms of past support for SOGI, for DRIPA, for carbon tax, for condemning the

01:11:32.740 Freedom Convoy, and other positions they took that are not conservative.

01:11:37.800 I am also, with my colleagues, very concerned that we have Ontario operators here trying

01:11:45.580 to take over BC.

01:11:52.080 Thank you.

01:11:53.140 I think British Columbians are very capable of charting our own destiny.

01:11:57.920 Thank you.

01:11:58.660 Thank you, Mrs. Finley.

01:12:02.160 Okay, final question of the evening.

01:12:06.980 The resurrection of the B.C. Conservative Party, which began just four years ago,

01:12:12.460 was directly precipitated by a profound frustration, dislike, and resentment

01:12:18.000 of what had become of the former B.C. Liberal Party.

01:12:22.040 How would you ensure this new B.C. Conservative Party stays true to its roots and doesn't return to the B.C. Liberal slash United Party of old?

01:12:33.600 The order for this is Mr. Hamm, Mrs. Finley, Mr. Black, and then Mr. Fulmer.

01:12:41.520 Mr. Hamm, 90 seconds to you, sir.

01:12:44.240 Yeah, I think in this province when people go to vote there's the NDP and then there's pretty much everyone else.

01:12:50.660 So the fact that the NDP technically get 30% default vote leaves us having to get 51 over 70 to get a majority and get into government.

01:13:02.480 So very difficult.

01:13:04.460 It's something where we all need to work together.

01:13:06.740 It is a big tent, but we've got to have conservative values.

01:13:10.500 That's what people expect.

01:13:11.800 That's why they voted conservative, and that's the name that's on my pin tonight and on the ballot when this leadership race moves forward.

01:13:20.660 Thank you Mr. Hamm. Mrs. Finley? It's really very simple. I think you need to

01:13:30.160 choose as members of the Conservative Party of BC a conservative leader. If

01:13:37.060 someone has shown over time consistently with competency and clarity that they

01:13:44.100 are conservatives, if they're prepared to make the arguments for conservatism, less

01:13:50.500 government more freedom less intrusion into our lives then you should look at

01:13:58.420 that person very seriously with your choice if they have to defend what they

01:14:04.540 said or did to just two three years ago can you trust that person and I think

01:14:10.540 that we need to have trust in our leadership going forward we need to know

01:14:16.120 that we won't be fooled by somebody who sounds like a Conservative today but was

01:14:21.580 not a Conservative a very short time ago. These are important issues and they're

01:14:27.500 for all of you to look at and decide. So look at the record because the best way

01:14:33.220 to stop the Conservative Party of BC becoming Liberal Party 2.0 or United 2.0

01:14:41.500 is to pick a Conservative leader. We had a rebirth in this party, but in 2022 I

01:14:48.340 spoke at the BC Conservative AGM. I was there. Some of you would remember that.

01:14:53.940 We have to have Conservatives standing up for Conservatives and a better way

01:14:59.320 forward.

01:15:01.980 Thank You Mrs. Finley. Mr. Black, 90 seconds to you sir. You know there's a

01:15:07.160 variation of this question I've had. I mean I've done about 66 I think now.

01:15:11.100 meet and greet and open houses in the last couple months and this question

01:15:15.360 gets asked at a variation every time which is how are you going to win the

01:15:17.700 election when you require some people who aren't card-carrying BC conservatives

01:15:22.100 to vote for us in order to do so and the answer I give is it's actually not that

01:15:26.040 complicated you stay true to just like seven or eight basic conservative values

01:15:30.960 so you know government does not do as well with your money as you do so you

01:15:34.560 should keep more of it government's job is to pave the way and then get out of

01:15:37.740 way, which speaks to regulation. It's not government's job to interfere with what

01:15:41.460 happens in your bedroom or your place of worship. Stay out of it. You know, the

01:15:45.120 notion that anything that can be done by the private sector should be done by the

01:15:48.360 private sector. It is my belief that you can build a platform, a narrative if you

01:15:52.800 will, around those core conservative beliefs and put a vision of where you

01:15:57.420 want to take British Columbia and the next generation of British Columbians and

01:16:00.900 show hope and show some optimism about what we had achieved together and you

01:16:05.160 will be able to do that staying true to those conservative values and you'll get

01:16:08.760 the votes from people who are fed up with the NDP and want to actually vote

01:16:11.640 for a better future and you're going to get people to vote for us who didn't

01:16:14.640 vote at all last time so that we can get this province back on track thank you

01:16:22.560 mr. black mr. former to you sir 90 seconds thank you you know there's a lot

01:16:28.200 of talk about big blue tents all right and I think every candidate including

01:16:32.460 me has spoken about having a big blue tent I'd put one nuance on that it's a

01:16:38.580 big blue tent and on the side of it it says conservative right it doesn't say

01:16:43.440 liberal it doesn't say United on the side of the tent it says conservative

01:16:47.580 now we need the tent flaps I'm going to keep the tent analogy going for a while

01:16:52.020 work with me the flaps at both ends of the tent need to be open and we need to

01:16:57.480 invite people into our tent. But we do not move the tent. It stays with conservatives.

01:17:06.180 That's what we need to do.

01:17:10.540 Thank you. Mr. Fulmer.

01:17:14.420 Each candidate on stage now has two and a half minutes for a closing statement. And we will go in the reverse order of your opening statement, which means we will start with Mr. Ham. Two and a half minutes.

01:17:27.480 British Columbia is on life support. You're working harder, paying more and getting less.

01:17:35.620 That's the reality and it needs to change. There are many serious challenges facing British

01:17:39.820 Columbia and tonight we face many of them head on. But here's the truth. We're not

01:17:44.980 going to fix these problems with the same thinking that created them. As the saying

01:17:49.220 goes, for every mile of road, there's two mile of ditch. And right now, we're driving

01:17:54.620 on the shoulder. I'm not a career politician and I'm not going to pretend to be one. I'm a builder

01:18:00.840 and for 30 years I built businesses, created jobs and solved real problems in this province.

01:18:07.480 That's the leadership we need right now. Our infrastructure is falling apart, projects are

01:18:12.520 delayed, cancelled, redesigned and delayed again. Costs go up, timelines slip and nothing gets

01:18:19.820 finished. Look at BC Ferries or the George Massey Tunnel Project. Tunnel, bridge, tunnel, years lost,

01:18:28.180 taxpayers' dollars wasted, and nothing built. That's not leadership, that's indecision. We need to

01:18:34.440 maintain what we have and what we need to build was promised on time and on budget. We also need

01:18:41.100 to work with our neighbours, not against them. UConn Premier Currie Dixon to unlock clean,

01:18:45.680 reliable northern power, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith to get our energy to global markets,

01:18:51.660 Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to strengthen rail, expand ports, and move our resources.

01:18:57.180 Finish what Stephen Harper started to ensure Canada becomes an energy superpower.

01:19:01.700 Because when the West works together, we all win.

01:19:06.720 We will start building opportunity again, infrastructure, and a future people can believe in.

01:19:12.940 But we won't get there with recycled leadership.

01:19:15.680 We won't get there by playing it safe, and we won't get there by hoping things fix themselves.

01:19:21.320 Some of you are showing support for others on this stage or candidates that chose not to show here tonight.

01:19:27.820 I respect that, but leadership means showing up, answering questions, and earning trust.

01:19:33.240 So I'm asking you to take a serious look at who is ready to do the job and not just hold the title.

01:19:40.320 Look on this stage tonight.

01:19:41.440 If you believe British Columbia needs a new direction, visit me, warnhambc.com, donate, become a member, and vote.

01:19:49.860 Please think carefully before you mark your ballot.

01:19:52.800 I thank you for your first choice vote, and I'm grateful for your second choice vote

01:19:56.440 if you think I can participate in making this province better and getting it back on track.

01:20:02.000 I give you my commitment for the next 10 years, not just a four-year term, and I will work every day.

01:20:08.040 I'm one of you. Let's get British Columbia back on track.

01:20:11.440 Mr. Fulmer, two and a half minutes.

01:20:18.880 Thank you.

01:20:19.880 As I've traveled the province, what I've really come to realize is the deal between

01:20:23.960 government and its people in British Columbia is fundamentally broken.

01:20:29.300 And the deal was this.

01:20:30.860 The deal was you and I paid our taxes.

01:20:33.400 And we could pay them grudgingly.

01:20:35.240 We could complain about paying them, but we paid our taxes.

01:20:39.200 And in return, the government did this.

01:20:42.120 When we needed health care, it was available.

01:20:45.500 Emergency rooms were open and you got treated immediately.

01:20:48.980 If you needed to see a specialist or needed surgery, it was available soon.

01:20:54.180 We all had a family doctor.

01:20:57.080 The police kept our streets safe.

01:20:59.580 When you called 911, the police came, they arrested the criminal and they took them away

01:21:04.320 to jail.

01:21:06.000 The government supported a private sector that created good, family-supporting jobs, 0.79

01:21:11.480 so only mom or dad had to go out to work.

01:21:14.940 The government kept business going.

01:21:19.580 And you know, the only part of that deal that's still true today is your pay and your taxes.

01:21:25.040 That's it.

01:21:26.040 The whole deal is broken.

01:21:29.100 And that's what I want to restore.

01:21:30.760 I want to restore people's faith in government.

01:21:33.500 And there is only one way I think we can do that heading into the next election, which

01:21:38.320 could be called the day after this leadership race is over.

01:21:43.680 We need to make sure that the right of center is unified and that we do not split a vote.

01:21:51.960 Everybody else has talked about how we get the right of center to get along and to unify

01:21:56.740 and we've all, as I've said, talked about a big blue tent.

01:22:00.140 But the reality is, 1BC is polling somewhere between 8% and 11% in British Columbia.

01:22:06.860 Even the CBC has them polling 8%, and if the CBC's got them polling 8%, we're in trouble.

01:22:13.340 The reality is, if they command that percentage of the vote in the next election, mathematically,

01:22:20.580 we cannot win, and you get four more years of NDP, broken government, and the deal with

01:22:28.020 you as taxpayers being broken that's why i did the deal with dallas to make sure that british

01:22:34.740 colombians get a conservative government and that the vote is not split and that we do what we need

01:22:41.700 to do which is defeat the ndp at the next election that's what we need to do and that's why i'm

01:22:47.620 I'm running. Thank you.

01:22:55.620 Mr. Black, you have two and a half minutes.

01:22:58.620 Tonight, you've heard a lot about what is wrong with British Columbia.

01:23:03.620 But the reality is, people already know. You know it. You're living it.

01:23:08.620 You're feeling it every time you pay rent, every time you buy groceries,

01:23:11.620 and every time you try to plan for the future.

01:23:14.620 And you feel it every time you engage with this government.

01:23:18.860 You're frustrated, you feel shut out,

01:23:20.560 and you often don't recognize the values or the priorities

01:23:23.340 of the institutions that you fund with your tax dollars.

01:23:27.560 The question is not whether change is needed.

01:23:30.660 The question is, who is the experience to lead that change?

01:23:35.560 I believe, as I mentioned earlier,

01:23:37.260 that British Columbia can be the strongest economy,

01:23:39.400 not just in Canada, but in the world,

01:23:41.120 where people don't just get by, but they actually get ahead.

01:23:44.620 But that does require focus, and it requires tenacity, and it requires discipline, and yes, it does require courage, but it requires leadership that is equipped to make the tough decisions and to deliver results. Experienced leadership.

01:23:59.420 If there's one thing I've heard from you as I've traveled across this province repeatedly,

01:24:02.960 it is that experience matters.

01:24:05.520 It's what will lead to getting housing built faster and more affordably,

01:24:08.680 growing our economy and getting the investment dollars back into the place,

01:24:12.120 fixing the systems that are driving up costs for people,

01:24:14.700 and restoring trust in our institutions.

01:24:17.860 So allow me to conclude this evening by encouraging you to insist on three criteria

01:24:23.320 as you look at who might lead this party into the next election.

01:24:27.260 First, pick somebody who's actually led something, anything, to repeated success.

01:24:33.060 Insist on that.

01:24:34.640 Number two, pick somebody who's got an understanding of the economy

01:24:37.540 and the wheels and levers and pulleys that are available to fix this NDP mess.

01:24:42.900 And third, pick somebody who has sat as a cabinet minister in Victoria,

01:24:46.680 who doesn't need the two-year tutorial on how to become an MLA,

01:24:51.020 and who actually knows not just where the premier's office is, but what it does.

01:24:54.800 And you do not learn that in opposition.

01:24:57.160 So tonight, as we leave here and we think about who you will choose to lead our party forward into the next election,

01:25:02.880 I'll ask you but one simple question.

01:25:05.920 Can we, can you, afford the risk of selecting a leader who does not have those skills and that experience required

01:25:13.560 to defeat the NDP and make the changes that we all so desperately need?

01:25:18.760 I am humbly asking for your vote so that together, and it will be together,

01:25:24.400 that we get British Columbia back on track.

01:25:27.000 Thank you so much for being here.

01:25:36.580 We now have two and a half minutes for Mrs. Bentley.

01:25:41.600 Those of you watching tonight will decide

01:25:44.780 who will lead B.C. out of the fiscal and ideological wilderness.

01:25:51.160 This is your home and mine.

01:25:53.720 I'm a proven fighter.

01:25:55.800 I've won and lost campaigns because I fought in swing ridings

01:26:00.120 when the odds were against me.

01:26:02.880 More often than not, I've won legal cases and I've won general elections.

01:26:07.480 I never gave up.

01:26:09.380 And right now, in B.C., we desperately need a fighter.

01:26:14.900 I've fought and won all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada

01:26:17.880 to save a Vancouver neighbourhood under siege.

01:26:20.400 and in Kelowna, when the government cancelled all Aboriginal leases on Duck Lake.

01:26:26.060 I have acted for band members who felt overlooked by their own chief and councils.

01:26:32.900 I understand we need economic partnerships with Indigenous,

01:26:36.600 but our collective history deserves respect as well.

01:26:40.920 Let's celebrate all that is good in our shared time,

01:26:44.020 including fighting shoulder to shoulder during war.

01:26:46.600 let's learn from when we stumbled and determine to do better together I am the

01:26:52.480 only candidate in this race who is governed as a conservative although I

01:26:57.660 agree with everything Ian said about experience Margaret Thatcher said first

01:27:05.360 you win the argument then you win the vote I will unite our party on common

01:27:10.960 ground and Jordan Keeley's here tonight he's an independent endorsing me thank

01:27:14.760 Thank you, Jordan.

01:27:16.340 And I will present us as a government-in-waiting.

01:27:19.080 This is the way to win.

01:27:20.960 We need clarity of vision, a clear voice, and a choice to defeat the NDP.

01:27:26.280 We cannot blur political lines and slide into and pass the middle of the failed BC Liberal

01:27:33.440 and failed BC United parties.

01:27:37.260 Those were supposed to be coalition parties, but Conservatives lost faith.

01:27:42.540 They voted for the carbon tax, DRIPA, SOGI in schools, calling it just anti-bullying,

01:27:47.880 supported the NDP COVID handling, and condemned the Freedom Convoy.

01:27:53.080 Now David Eby and the NDP today congratulate Caroline Elliott for supporting them on SOGI and safe supply.

01:28:00.260 She said Lori Thronis' ideas were abhorrent to her.

01:28:04.260 Just today, Eby is praising her and Millibar for not showing up here because they said this debate,

01:28:10.820 we are all extremists.

01:28:12.000 Well, they are the extremists. They are the ideologues, not us.

01:28:23.540 We should be a free people, with free choices, in a free enterprise economy.

01:28:29.540 Go to finleyforbc.ca, take out a membership.

01:28:33.180 Faith, family, freedom, think on it.

01:28:35.380 Compassion, dedication, and conservatism is the answer.

01:28:39.700 God bless BC, and God bless all of you.

01:28:45.240 Thank you, Mrs. Finley.

01:28:49.800 And after all the work you guys have done today, answering questions,

01:28:53.860 I've got a lot more answers tonight than I do usually in question period,

01:28:56.520 I have to say, in Ottawa.

01:28:58.700 I know that.

01:28:59.940 A quick question for the audience.

01:29:01.600 Aren't you glad they all have the political courage to show up here tonight?

01:29:04.960 Yes.

01:29:09.220 And we, we just have some quick closing remarks.

01:29:26.220 Running in a leadership contest is very demanding, and these four BC Conservative leadership

01:29:31.140 candidates took time out of their packed schedules to communicate their ideas directly

01:29:35.380 to all of you and British Columbians across the province and we thank them for that.

01:29:42.340 As a reminder to all those watching at home, if you would like to vote in this leadership

01:29:47.460 race to make one of these individuals the next leader of the BC Conservative Party and

01:29:52.340 Premier of British Columbia, you must have bought your Conservative Party membership

01:29:56.500 by April 18th by going to conservativebc.ca.

01:30:01.780 I would also like to acknowledge the professional team at our venue here, Anvil Center, our

01:30:07.140 lighting and sound techs, and our streaming company, Stream City.

01:30:11.280 Let's give them a round of applause as well.

01:30:19.800 And with that, good night everyone.

01:30:21.160 Good night.

01:30:22.160 Thank you.

Juno News - April 09, 2026

LIVE： BC Conservative Leadership Debate

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