Penticton MLA Boultbee joins BC NDP

A Penticton MLA elected as a Conservative is now joining the BC NDP.

Amelia Boultbee has been an independent MLA for Penticton-Summerland since she resigned from BC Conservative Party caucus last October. The BC NDP announced she joined the party on Friday, July 3.

“I’m a fourth-generation Pentictonite, and I got into politics to serve my community,” Boultbee said in a news release. “When I think about who’s best positioned to make a difference for people in Penticton, Summerland, and the whole province, my confidence is with David Eby and the BC NDP.”

It comes just a month after she suggested she was still open to joining the Conservatives again following a leadership vote. She spoke with iNFOnews.ca days after Kerry-Lynne Findlay was chosen as the new Conservative leader, and she didn’t rule out returning to the caucus.

She took issue with Findlay’s stance on social issues, like trans rights, but said she would join the caucus “under the right circumstances.”

In May, she was also criticized by Conservatives as being part of the “NDP farm team” after voting on changes to access to information laws. She denied the accusation and criticized the Conservatives as being disorganized. That vote got her kicked out as a BC Conservative party member, more than six months after she left the caucus.

As of July, she’s now in the BC NDP fray after nearly a year as an independent.

“I was impressed with the courage Amelia showed in standing up for principle and leaving the BC Conservatives. Since then, she’s been a fierce independent voice for the people in Penticton and Summerland,” Premier David Eby said in a news release. “I know her advocacy will continue in our caucus as we work together to strengthen healthcare, bring housing costs down, and keep our economy moving forward.”

Boutlbee described the party as “consumed with divisive Trump-style populism.”

“I’ve always believed that politics should be about working together to solve problems on behalf of people,” she said in the news release.

She said BC is facing a “generational challenges” like housing affordability, health care worker shortages and economic uncertainty stemming from trade disputes with the US, adding that she’s throwing her support behind Eby and the NDP to take on those issues.

With Boultbee’s addition, the New Democrats now have 48 members in the provincial legislature and the B.C. Conservatives have 38, with two Greens and five Independents.