Angelo Isidorou Photo by Courtesy Angelo Isidorou

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VICTORIA — The B.C. Conservative’s executive director, Angelo Isidorou, this week left the party he took from nowhere to the threshold of victory in the 2024 provincial election.

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“When I joined our party and stepped into my role in 2022, we were polling at two per cent, had a broken website, old branding, no money in the bank and almost no members,” he said in a statement Wednesday.

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“We came within a hair of forming a majority government. From two per cent to over 40 in just a few years.”

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Caroline Elliott, who finished a close second in the party leadership, called Isidorou’s departure “a huge loss.” Trevor Halford, the party’s interim leader this spring, said “his talents are unmatched.”

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Federal Conservative MP Aaron Gunn, who helped revive the brand provincially, said “without him the Conservative party would not exist.”

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Party Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay interrupted her relentless housecleaning of party and caucus staff long enough to say a few grudging words on Isidorou’s behalf.

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“I appreciate the continuity he provided during an early transition time as we move forward toward opportunity and prosperity for all British Columbians.”

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Thanks Angelo for staying long enough for me to complete my hit list. Don’t let the door whack you on the way out.

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Isidorou was more graceful.

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“Now, more than ever, Conservatives need to keep their focus on winning elections and forming a majority government. Focus Conservatives!” he wrote in part. “The Hon. Kerry-Lynne Findlay has a fresh mandate from our members. I wish her and her team the very best of luck. I leave on amicable and mutual terms.”

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So the guy who was forced out as executive director delivered the unity message that has so far eluded the party’s new leader.

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Two months after Findlay’s narrow victory — she finished 60 votes ahead of Elliott out of more than 22,000 cast — the Conservatives are divided internally under a leader who seems bent on remaking the party in her own socially conservative image.

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The prospect of a divided opposition provides Premier David Eby with some comfort before what is expected to be a challenging fall session of the legislature.

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“There are two different proposals for the direction of our province that are emerging,” he told reporters this week.

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One, as he sees it, is the NDP government’s commitment to development of natural gas, energy, critical minerals and other resources to pay for expanded services and infrastructure.

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The other approach was the Conservative insistence “that the big issue of our time is the culture war” said Eby, pointing to Findlay’s hard line on socially Conservative issues like human rights and Indigenous relations.

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The premier also took aim at the Conservatives for supporting the return of American products to B.C. liquor stores.