Former BC United MLA calls on Kevin Falcon to resign as leader

Karin Kirkpatrick, a former BC United MLA for West Vancouver-Capilano, is calling on party leader Kevin Falcon to step down.

Kirkpatrick says Falcon needs to step down so the party can rebuild and pay off its debts.

“Kevin Falcon betrayed our party and its candidates when he made the unilateral decision to withdraw BC United from the 2024 election,” she said.

“Former MLAs, candidates, staff, and small business vendors who provided services to the party are still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

She says the party would not be able to raise the funds it needs to pay off its debts as past supporters have no incentive to renew memberships or make new donations other than the fear of deregistration.

“Every day Kevin Falcon remains as leader decreases the chances that those people will ever see the money they are rightfully owed,” she said.

Last August, Falcon shocked supporters and candidates by suspending his party’s campaign and pulling it out of the upcoming October election. At the time, he issued a statement encouraging supporters to get behind the BC Conservative Party, led by John Rustad.

Kirkpatrick had announced in February that she wasn’t going to seek reelection. However, three weeks after Falcon suspended the party’s campaign, she announced she was going to run as an Independent.

At that time, she told 1130 NewsRadio that she was “very angry” about Falcon’s decision to pull the party out of the election.

“I feel that there’s been a real disservice done to British Columbians by completely removing that middle choice, which I think is where most British Columbians, ideologically or from a principled perspective, actually fit,” she said at the time.

“And it was done in such an egregious way and hurt so many different people who had really, really been trying hard to support Kevin [Falcon] and to support the party.”

The rebuild, starting with Falcon’s resignation, would allow the party to “once again offer a positive, fiscally responsible, and socially progressive vision for the future of our province,” she said.

With files from Srushti Gangdev and Charles Brockman.