B.C. Conservative leader John Cummins to quit

VANCOUVER – B.C. Conservative Leader John Cummins is expected to quit this evening after a meeting with the party’s board of directors.

Dan Brooks, who sits as a party director at large, confirms the party’s leadership has a conference call tonight to hammer out a few details, but that Cummins has already indicated the meeting will be his last.

Cummins could not be reached for comment.

But Brooks says Cummins told the party after the Conservatives’ disastrous showing in May that he would step down when the party had some time to work out how a replacement would be chosen, though Brooks wouldn’t divulge those details.

The Conservatives, considered a serious threat to the B.C. Liberals during three byelections last year, imploded before May’s election amid infighting and demands for Cummins’ resignation, which Cummins successfully deflected in a confidence vote.

Cummins came a distant third in his own riding and the party managed to garner only 4.8 per cent of the popular vote.