Will new BC Conservatives keep old promise to fire Dr. Bonnie Henry? They’re not eager to answer

The BC Conservatives have wanted to fire the provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry for years, but after two years of infighting and now forming government under a more moderate premier-elect, is her job still at stake?

Henry led the province through the pandemic and, like many COVID-era leaders, there are a lot of people who want to see her fired. Several current BC Conservatives have been loudly critical of how the pandemic was handled, along with other health policies, and Henry often gets the blame.

Back in 2024, John Rustad led the BC Conservatives through a comeback and on the campaign trail he said that if elected he would remove Henry from her post.

“One of the things we had promised was to replace Bonnie Henry,” Rustad told iNFOnews.ca. “I haven’t talked to the premier-elect or any of his potential ministers about whether they plan to do that or not.”

The possibility of Henry losing her job was front and centre in 2024 when Rustad’s BC Conservatives narrowly lost to the BC NDP. At the time, Henry said she would do her best to serve the government, no matter which party was in power.

Rustad never got the chance to fire her and his leadership was short-lived. He was replaced by Kerry-Lynne Findlay who lasted a few months before she was ousted and replaced by the now Premier-elect Lorne Doerkson.

The provincial health officer is appointed by the provincial cabinet, technically The Lieutenant Governor in Council, so the government doesn’t need to hold a vote in the legislative assembly in order to replace Henry.

Doerkson’s BC Conservatives didn’t campaign on removing Henry the way that Rustad did. Doerkson was originally a BC Liberal/BC United MLA, but he defected and joined the BC Conservatives during the 2024 election.

Rustad said it makes sense for the incoming government to focus on its day-to-day issues rather than prioritizing replacing Henry.

“The vast majority of people in this province are focused on a couple of things that are critical for them,” he said. “Affordability is huge, crime and drugs on our street, access to health care. Those are the things that people were heavily concerned about. That’s where the majority of the campaign was focused on, and I agree with that.”

Some BC Conservatives took to social media immediately following the election to prove the pandemic is still their issue and called for her to be fired.

Kelowna-Centre MLA Kristina Loewen has been criticized in the past over conspiracy theory, anti-vaccine posts to social media. She declined to comment on whether the BC Conservatives plan on firing Henry now that they are taking power.

“I do know there’s lots of people that have significant concerns with regards to how the COVID period was handled and the whole vaccine mandate,” Rustad said. “Whether or not the party and the new leader decides this priority, that’ll be up to them.”

The BC Conservative Party did not respond to a request for comment and several BC Conservative MLAs declined to comment.