BC United MLA Todd Stone to retire from politics, backs BC Conservatives

A longtime B.C. MLA and former cabinet minister has announced he is hanging up his boots.

In the fallout from Wednesday’s bombshell that BC United would be suspending its campaign for the upcoming October election, Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone announced Thursday he is retiring from politics and backing the BC Conservatives.

In a news conference, Stone shared that “the time to make space to defeat the NDP is now.”

On Wednesday, Kevin Falcon encouraged BCU supporters to get behind Conservative candidates in the upcoming election, “to prevent another four years of disastrous NDP government.”

“It wasn’t an easy call and I knew it wouldn’t be. This is hard, it’s really hard, and I accept all the responsibility, good and bad, all the opprobrium should rest on my shoulders. That’s what leadership’s all about,” Falcon said.

“But I also believe this: this is the right thing to do for the province of British Columbia. This is the right thing to do for that next generation of British Columbians who want to grow up in a province like we grew up in, where hope and optimism were not the exception but the rule. And that’s why I’ve made the decision that I’ve made today.”

The announcement about BC United’s future comes after the party saw many challenges post-rebrand. The party has also consistently seen a dip in the polls, leaving the Conservatives as the main opponent for the BC New Democrats in the upcoming election.

In July, it was announced BC United was going to be referred to as “BC United (formerly the BC Liberal Party)” on the election ballot come October, with recent polling of BCU’s membership finding that about 30 per cent of supporters didn’t know BC United was the party’s name now. They either had no idea the party changed its name or they thought the Liberals were now the BC Conservatives.