# Double Trouble for KLF | Political Capital Daily

An episode of [Political Capital with Rob Shaw](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1553146808), 3 Sep 2026, 18 min.

Audio: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74848086/pcdaily_sept3.mp3

Sept. 3, 2026 Double the trouble, double the fun as two Conservative MLAs quit in one day. Plus, an audio book reading of KLF's chief of staff resignation letter. Watch Rob on CHEK TV weeknights. Read more: www.robshawnews.com — Political Capital Daily is presented by: Airbnb Your daily briefing on B.C. politics — from inside the legislature.

## Transcript

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[0:32] Speaker 1: the show. It's Thursday, September 3rd, 2026, and this is
[0:40] Speaker 1: Political Capital Daily. Well, good morning. Happy Thursday to you
[0:59] Speaker 1: as we approach the end of the week. It is
[1:02] Speaker 1: in sight on the horizon. Jillian Oliver from Political Capital
[1:06] Speaker 1: Prime joining me. Jillian, thanks for being here.
[1:10] Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
[1:11] Speaker 3: It's good to be back.
[1:12] Speaker 1: I'm asking everyone this week, do you have your Halloween
[1:15] Speaker 1: costume picked out yet? September the 2nd.
[1:18] Speaker 3: I'm thinking of wearing my six-year-old's dragon cape. in case
[1:24] Speaker 3: I don't come up with anything else beforehand.
[1:26] Speaker 1: What's your six-year-old going to wear then?
[1:28] Speaker 3: I think he's deciding between Spider-Man and Batman.
[1:32] Speaker 1: Ah, well, I mean, there's no choice there. It's Batman.
[1:35] Speaker 1: Seven days a week, but we'll let the youngster make
[1:38] Speaker 1: his own mistakes. Okay, we got a lot to get
[1:42] Speaker 1: into this show. We got all sorts of things that
[1:45] Speaker 1: are occurring out there. Well, okay, we know what that means.
[1:51] Speaker 1: That means... On sound of another BC Conservative quitting caucus
[1:55] Speaker 1: over leader Carrie Lynn Finlay. You know, it's kind of
[1:57] Speaker 1: one of those things where.
[2:00] Speaker 2: Oh my God.
[2:01] Speaker 1: It's a double play day. It is a double play
[2:03] Speaker 1: day of Conservatives quitting caucus. Jillian, we have two of
[2:08] Speaker 1: them that are queued up here. Let's just see if
[2:12] Speaker 1: you can identify them, if you haven't figured out who
[2:13] Speaker 1: these folks are.
[2:14] Speaker 4: I respect that the members elected Carrie Lynn Finlay. And
[2:19] Speaker 4: when I looked myself in the mirror and said that
[2:21] Speaker 4: I could not go out and door knock and look
[2:23] Speaker 4: people in the eyes and ask them to support her,
[2:25] Speaker 4: that's when I removed myself from the caucus.
[2:28] Speaker 5: An accumulation of events, which ultimately, you know, made me
[2:33] Speaker 5: realize that this is the decision I had to make.
[2:36] Speaker 1: That is Boundaries Simoca means Donegal Wilson, Columbia River Revelstokes,
[2:41] Speaker 1: Scott McInnes, both out as MLAs as of yesterday. The
[2:44] Speaker 1: party's Star Indigenous relations critic, McInnes, that's a big one,
[2:48] Speaker 1: and both describing Finlay as a step backwards for the party,
[2:51] Speaker 1: out of alignment with their values, unable to defeat the NDP,
[2:55] Speaker 1: all sorts of ethical concerns. Jillian, not good.
[2:59] Speaker 2: Not good.
[3:01] Speaker 1: Did anything come to mind when you heard two more
[3:04] Speaker 1: MLAs in one day had left the party?
[3:09] Speaker 3: I mean, I think the biggest thing that comes to
[3:11] Speaker 3: mind is that it's really remarkable that the Conservatives had
[3:15] Speaker 3: this whole leadership race, which was quite well run. You know,
[3:19] Speaker 3: we all thought at the time they had really professional
[3:21] Speaker 3: people running it and a whole really carefully well thought
[3:25] Speaker 3: out rules, only to end up with a leader who
[3:27] Speaker 3: is worse at caucus management than John Rustad, which was
[3:30] Speaker 3: like the big thing with him, right? It's really, really remarkable.
[3:36] Speaker 1: It is a caucus management issue for sure. I think
[3:38] Speaker 1: you're right on that because, you know, Wilson telling me,
[3:41] Speaker 1: she wanted an emergency meeting of caucus to address a
[3:43] Speaker 1: bunch of things that had happened. All these resignations, Finley
[3:46] Speaker 1: wouldn't do it. Canceled that meeting at the last minute.
[3:49] Speaker 1: McInnes and others talking about kind of a lack of direction.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Some others have talked about never even really speaking to Finley.
[3:55] Speaker 1: Like don't hear from her. Just kind of, she only
[3:58] Speaker 1: speaks to the small crew of people who support her
[4:01] Speaker 1: and her senior staff. And it's not, I guess we forget.
[4:04] Speaker 1: And you've been in a caucus. Uh, I'll be at
[4:07] Speaker 1: a smaller one. Um, how important it is to have
[4:10] Speaker 1: communication so that people don't just feel alienated when decisions
[4:14] Speaker 1: are made.
[4:16] Speaker 3: It's critical. And there's so much to being a party
[4:19] Speaker 3: leader that goes on behind the scenes and that, that
[4:22] Speaker 3: people don't see. And I think, you know, it's challenging
[4:26] Speaker 3: to convey that kind of thing in a leadership race,
[4:30] Speaker 3: but I think there was like a number of red flags.
[4:33] Speaker 3: If you think back to the debates and, when Finlay
[4:35] Speaker 3: went after Peter Milibar in such a personal way, going
[4:38] Speaker 3: after his family and their heritage, I think, you know,
[4:42] Speaker 3: you kind of have to think to yourself, is this
[4:44] Speaker 3: going to be a leader that's going to be able
[4:46] Speaker 3: to keep the party together? And I think it sort
[4:49] Speaker 3: of begs the question, does the Conservative base want the
[4:52] Speaker 3: party to be together in the sense that it's like a,
[4:56] Speaker 3: you know, a centre-right coalition party? It seems like that's
[4:59] Speaker 3: not the case, that they really want almost like this
[5:02] Speaker 3: purge to be happening, only I think now they're losing
[5:07] Speaker 3: people that maybe they, you know, some of those diehard
[5:09] Speaker 3: conservatives wouldn't want to see go.
[5:10] Speaker 1: Yeah, some of them are definitely of the mindset of
[5:13] Speaker 1: if you leave, that's great because you're obviously a secret
[5:16] Speaker 1: liberal who isn't a loyal conservative and you should never
[5:19] Speaker 1: have been there in the first place and will purify
[5:21] Speaker 1: the party kind of thing. But that is becoming harder
[5:24] Speaker 1: and harder as more and more people leave. Here is
[5:28] Speaker 1: Wilson and McInnes just talking a bit more about why
[5:32] Speaker 1: they left.
[5:32] Speaker 4: It comes from how you choose to lead, who you
[5:37] Speaker 4: choose to surround yourself with and how you communicate as
[5:41] Speaker 4: part of a team. And I think all three of
[5:43] Speaker 4: those things were worrisome to me. And if you look
[5:47] Speaker 4: at May 30th, when she took leadership of the party,
[5:51] Speaker 4: I mean, we were ahead in the polls. The caucus
[5:54] Speaker 4: had just come off a very good spring session. I
[5:57] Speaker 4: was proud to be part of the work that we
[5:59] Speaker 4: did during that session. And I mean, it was hers to,
[6:04] Speaker 4: to take to government. And here we are three months
[6:07] Speaker 4: later and I referenced it in the, in the letter.
[6:10] Speaker 4: I mean, every indication of success is, is not there.
[6:14] Speaker 4: And I feel that the people at Boundaries to Milkmean, uh,
[6:21] Speaker 4: weren't being represented. We were focused on fringe issues that
[6:24] Speaker 4: were not important to the constituents of the Boundaries to Milkmean.
[6:26] Speaker 5: You know, but it sort of became clear over the
[6:29] Speaker 5: summer that, uh, you know, there wasn't a tremendous lack
[6:32] Speaker 5: of direction and we didn't have those sort of strategy
[6:35] Speaker 5: sessions that I was hoping for. And, you know, we
[6:38] Speaker 5: were kind of behind on some big stories and things
[6:41] Speaker 5: like that. So, you know, that was part of it.
[6:44] Speaker 5: Obviously there were, you know, you don't have to search
[6:47] Speaker 5: too far to find in the news that there were some,
[6:49] Speaker 5: you know, I think ethical questions raised about some of
[6:53] Speaker 5: the individuals that the leader had brought on board to
[6:57] Speaker 5: help her make decisions. And, you know, for me, I'm
[7:01] Speaker 5: a person of integrity, first and foremost, and above all else,
[7:04] Speaker 5: I'm here to represent my constituents. And, you know, as
[7:08] Speaker 5: time went on here, the discussions here in Columbia River
[7:11] Speaker 5: Revelstoke got louder that although people, you know, really appreciate
[7:15] Speaker 5: me as their MLA, they just couldn't envision themselves supporting
[7:20] Speaker 5: the Conservative Party moving forward. Yeah, you know what? The
[7:24] Speaker 5: reality is there will be people that are unhappy with
[7:27] Speaker 5: it and call me selfish and everything else, and that's fine.
[7:31] Speaker 5: That's their opinion. But I certainly don't put a lot
[7:33] Speaker 5: of stock into that as far as what I think
[7:35] Speaker 5: the majority of my constituents expect from me. Since I
[7:39] Speaker 5: made this decision just a short time ago, the support
[7:43] Speaker 5: has been somewhat overwhelming. you know, calls from local government stakeholders,
[7:48] Speaker 5: my neighbors. So, you know what, if people want to
[7:52] Speaker 5: go online and call me a traitor or a liberal
[7:54] Speaker 5: or whatever, I don't particularly put a lot of time
[7:59] Speaker 5: and effort into, you know, what other people think about that.
[8:02] Speaker 1: Some people are doing just that, Jillian, in response to that.
[8:05] Speaker 1: But what do you make of when you hear the
[8:07] Speaker 1: MLAs kind of sketch out some of their concerns there?
[8:10] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think both these MLAs sound like
[8:13] Speaker 3: they're really, like, concerned about being able to represent their
[8:18] Speaker 3: community under the conservative banner. Um, we also heard the
[8:22] Speaker 3: same thing from, uh, Rosalind Byrd, who is like an
[8:26] Speaker 3: OG conservative, um, that she just felt like she was getting,
[8:32] Speaker 3: you know, a flood of, of concerns from her constituents. And, um,
[8:36] Speaker 3: I think that should probably trouble conservative, you know, the
[8:40] Speaker 3: remaining MLAs and people behind the conservatives most of all,
[8:43] Speaker 3: like if you're, if your MLAs are are, are really
[8:47] Speaker 3: feeling that in their community, then that's like a really
[8:49] Speaker 3: big problem for you. So, um, we haven't talked yet
[8:52] Speaker 3: about like, there's so much going on here, but, uh,
[8:56] Speaker 3: the senior staff now her like top two most senior
[8:59] Speaker 3: staff have either been fired or resigned. Um, and it's,
[9:04] Speaker 3: you know, it goes to judgment, right? It does.
[9:05] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[9:06] Speaker 1: That you mentioned her chief of staff, Chris Delaney, who
[9:10] Speaker 1: announced his resignation in yesterday, just minutes before a leaked
[9:14] Speaker 1: audio recording of him, went online talking about First Nations
[9:17] Speaker 1: peoples as natives on a rant about how he believes
[9:21] Speaker 1: they basically starved to death historically because they weren't smart
[9:25] Speaker 1: enough to make more food, like white people who then
[9:28] Speaker 1: introduced conservation principles to them in the audio recording. He's
[9:34] Speaker 1: also at the center of On RCMP, questioning or investigation
[9:38] Speaker 1: into whether he offered a job and salary equivalent to
[9:41] Speaker 1: an MLA's pay to Ian Payton. If he quit the
[9:44] Speaker 1: RCMP interviewing Payton yesterday, he told me he went to
[9:47] Speaker 1: E-Division headquarters in Surrey to talk to them. Delaney goes
[9:51] Speaker 1: out with his letter resigning. It was only online for
[9:55] Speaker 1: a brief period of time. It is a bizarre read
[9:58] Speaker 1: on Conservative Party news. letterhead full of all sorts of stuff.
[10:01] Speaker 1: I can't really do it justice in speaking it out loud.
[10:05] Speaker 1: So we'll just go with this reproduction of what I
[10:08] Speaker 1: imagine it sounds like if he was reading his own letter.
[10:11] Speaker 2: This by election will decide the future of B.C. Whether B.C.
[10:17] Speaker 2: will have a chance to remain a sovereign and free
[10:21] Speaker 2: province with equal rights for all citizens. Oregon, whether it
[10:27] Speaker 2: will descend into a monstrous hybrid of soft tyranny and
[10:32] Speaker 2: dictatorship with remnants of a past democracy. The enemies of B.C.
[10:40] Speaker 2: And the enemies of democracy, like those who have walked
[10:44] Speaker 2: away in previous days, are determined to prevaricate, misrepresent, mischaracterize,
[10:52] Speaker 2: and outright lie to try and stop Kerry Lynn from
[10:56] Speaker 2: standing in their way of delivering B.C. into their hands.
[11:01] Speaker 1: Much better than if I had narrated that letter. That's
[11:06] Speaker 1: very highly accurate. It's fascinating to have the chief of
[11:09] Speaker 1: staff on party letterhead saying the MLAs who have quit
[11:15] Speaker 1: the party, who have probably been in the party longer
[11:17] Speaker 1: than he has, are enemies of democracy, which I just
[11:20] Speaker 1: thought was a talk about rhetoric. Like, holy moly, what
[11:23] Speaker 1: are we doing here? Enemies of democracy, the tyranny and
[11:26] Speaker 1: dictatorship of the province?
[11:27] Speaker 4: Like, bizarre.
[11:29] Speaker 1: Truly bizarre stuff there.
[11:31] Speaker 3: Especially when you are, you know, potentially facing an RCMP
[11:35] Speaker 3: investigation for subverting democracy yourself.
[11:41] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[11:41] Speaker 1: Not to be outdone, but Finlay herself puts out a
[11:44] Speaker 1: statement yesterday. You know, God forbid she does any interviews
[11:47] Speaker 1: or anything, but she basically says this is all a
[11:49] Speaker 1: big conspiracy against her to derail her by-election race in
[11:53] Speaker 1: Abbotsford Mission. And she says the allegations are baseless, and
[11:56] Speaker 1: it doesn't really say what the allegations are. I guess
[11:58] Speaker 1: we're talking about everything. What we're seeing is a coordinated
[12:01] Speaker 1: political attack designed to sidetrack our campaign at the very
[12:04] Speaker 1: moment we're taking our message directly to the people of
[12:07] Speaker 1: Abbott's for admission. So you have all these things happening,
[12:09] Speaker 1: no apologies, no acknowledgement of anything, no expression of concern,
[12:14] Speaker 1: no outreach, no olive branch, nothing. Just everything is a
[12:18] Speaker 1: conspiracy and everything is out to get me, including the
[12:22] Speaker 1: chief of staff. And it's, yeah, I guess it's an
[12:26] Speaker 1: interesting strategy, but I don't know. What do you think?
[12:30] Speaker 3: I mean, it's hard. Like, I feel like early on,
[12:33] Speaker 3: the NDP tried so hard to sort of tied the, like,
[12:37] Speaker 3: Maple Mega label to them, and everybody was like, ah,
[12:42] Speaker 3: you're going too far, that's, like, an easy out to
[12:44] Speaker 3: sort of, like, say they're the same, but they're really
[12:46] Speaker 3: not doing themselves any favors, like, this is really straight
[12:49] Speaker 3: from the Trump playbook of just, like, double down, anyone
[12:52] Speaker 3: who opposes you is, like, an enemy, and, like, you know, it's, it's,
[12:57] Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, I don't know, I think it just,
[13:00] Speaker 3: it seems like she has not even though she's had
[13:05] Speaker 3: a long career in politics has not had to face
[13:07] Speaker 3: this kind, this level of criticism, um, or spotlight, uh, before.
[13:13] Speaker 3: And now we're starting to see, um, that she doesn't
[13:17] Speaker 3: have great instincts when it comes to this sort of thing.
[13:20] Speaker 1: Or that when she faced it in Ottawa under Pierre
[13:23] Speaker 1: Polyev and to a certain extent, Stephen Harper, it was
[13:26] Speaker 1: easier to just kind of blame the media, the elites,
[13:30] Speaker 1: the liberals, uh, all these folks. And that, that is
[13:32] Speaker 1: her strategy. And here, It doesn't make sense when you
[13:35] Speaker 1: have original kind of conservatives like Bruce Bannman and other
[13:39] Speaker 1: people quitting. The explanation falls short when people kind of
[13:43] Speaker 1: hear it out loud. So that is interesting. The number
[13:46] Speaker 1: of MLAs now, nine have quit in 19 days. The
[13:49] Speaker 1: caucus is down to 28 from a high of 44
[13:52] Speaker 1: when it was elected two years ago. And the magic
[13:56] Speaker 1: number is now 10. If 10 more conservative MLAs quit,
[13:59] Speaker 1: the party could lose officially. opposition status when the legislature
[14:02] Speaker 1: comes back in October at this rate. That is not
[14:05] Speaker 1: impossible and may not even take very long. Let's just
[14:09] Speaker 1: take a quick break here. I know we inverted the
[14:11] Speaker 1: show today doing the big news up front instead of
[14:13] Speaker 1: what's coming up later today, but why don't we take
[14:16] Speaker 1: a quick break and then get into that. All right,
[14:29] Speaker 1: Political Capital Daily is free each and every morning thanks
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[14:56] Speaker 1: its ongoing support. Back to the show. All right, Gillian,
[15:05] Speaker 1: not a lot happening today. We'll kind of run through
[15:09] Speaker 1: it here and then talk a bit about that. But
[15:11] Speaker 1: Labor Minister Jennifer Whiteside is supposed to be up this
[15:13] Speaker 1: morning on a skilled trades training announcement at Vancouver Community College.
[15:17] Speaker 1: That one may be on the bubble. We'll have to
[15:18] Speaker 1: check on that later today. Premier David Eby up in
[15:21] Speaker 1: Prince George for what is billed as a nation-building clean
[15:24] Speaker 1: energy milestone. He's got the Federal Natural Resources Minister Tim
[15:27] Speaker 1: Hodgson there. And he has the Federal Housing Minister Gregor
[15:30] Speaker 1: Robertson there as well with an event that starts at
[15:33] Speaker 1: 11 a.m. And there may be some sort of TransLink
[15:36] Speaker 1: announcement today coming up involving new routes for the transit
[15:40] Speaker 1: authority in Metro Vancouver. Man, tough for any of those events,
[15:44] Speaker 1: I think, Jillian, to make their way through the news
[15:46] Speaker 1: cycle when it is just the chaos of all of
[15:49] Speaker 1: the conservative developments taking the spotlight.
[15:53] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think if the government's got any good,
[15:56] Speaker 3: really big positive news, they probably want to get it
[15:58] Speaker 3: in after Labor Day. Um, but it sounds like I
[16:01] Speaker 3: have had to guess, I'd say the Prince George announcement
[16:03] Speaker 3: with the premiers might be about the North coast transmission line. Um,
[16:07] Speaker 3: just kind of trying to continue to have good news
[16:09] Speaker 3: about the major projects that they're, they're moving along. Um,
[16:12] Speaker 3: even though they're going to take a long time to
[16:14] Speaker 3: go to come to fruition.
[16:15] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[16:16] Speaker 1: It's, uh, sure. There'll be hundreds of announcements on that
[16:19] Speaker 1: North coast transmission line as it takes to 2034. I
[16:23] Speaker 1: think it is before it's done. Uh, so we hear
[16:26] Speaker 1: a lot about that.
[16:27] Speaker 2: Okay.
[16:27] Speaker 1: Well, that is a, wrap-up of the day, and depending
[16:30] Speaker 1: on when you listen to this, more people may have resigned.
[16:32] Speaker 1: Who knows? Can't be responsible for that, but that's 5 a.m.
[16:36] Speaker 1: That is where we are at. Jillian, thanks so much
[16:38] Speaker 1: for being here on The Daily Show. I really appreciate it.
[16:41] Speaker 3: My pleasure.
[16:42] Speaker 1: And Political Capital Prime is going to be back with everyone,
[16:47] Speaker 1: all the familiar sort of faces, on Friday, the 11th
[16:50] Speaker 1: of September. So mark your calendars for that. No Political
[16:53] Speaker 1: Capital Prime this week, but next Friday and tomorrow. We
[16:58] Speaker 1: shall be back with another edition of Political Capital Daily.
[17:02] Speaker 1: Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll talk to you tomorrow.

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