Kerry Lynne-Findlay won B.C. Conservative race as most authentic populist: expert

VANCOUVER — An analyst says Kerry-Lynne Findlay won the B.C. Conservative leadership race because she is an “authentic champion” of populism within the broader conservative movement.

David Black, who teaches political theory at Royal Roads University in Greater Victoria, says Findlay’s victory over Caroline Elliott confirms the party’s turn toward populism.

While Elliott performed populism, Black says that Findlay didn’t need to do that, because of her populists credentials while serving under former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper and later Pierre Poilievre, the current federal Conservative leader.

The scholar says that Findlay’s acceptance speech not only included traditional right-of-centre themes such as public safety, and comments about the importance of small businesses and individual effort, but also “populist coding” around eastern and global elites holding B.C. back.