Teresa Wat quits B.C. Conservatives and blames Findlay, who says it’s a betrayal

Upheaval in the opposition B.C. Conservatives has stepped up a gear, with Teresa Wat becoming the fourth MLA to quit the party this month, and leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay accusing her of betrayal.

Hours later, Findlay fired Apollo Chung, the party’s director of operations, effective immediately but without any explanation.

The day had started with Wat announcing she could no longer serve under Findlay because she failed to apologize over “serious and unfounded accusations” that Findlay reportedly made in a group chat that Wat says questioned her allegiance to Canada.

Wat says in a statement the remarks were “distasteful, hurtful” and made her question her place in the Conservatives under Findlay.

The statement cites widely reported remarks attributed to Findlay calling Wat “CCP,” a reference to the Chinese Communist Party.

Wat is the third MLA to exit the official opposition in as many days, after Prince George-Valemount’s Rosalyn Bird quit on Tuesday, a day after Delta South’s Ian Paton.

Former Conservative leadership candidate and finance critic Peter Milobar left earlier this month.

“I had many friends and individuals from the community reach out to me to say they do not believe these false allegations and were shocked no apology was issued,” Wat said in her statement.

“I realized that these allegations had caused real damage to my reputation and had created serious concern within the community.”

Wat said that Findlay told her this week there would be an apology, but none had been issued.

Wat, a Hong Kong immigrant, represents Richmond-Bridgeport, a riding that is heavily ethnically Chinese.

“I cannot continue to sit in a caucus led by someone who has questioned my loyalty without evidence and, when given the opportunity to correct the record, has failed to do so,” she said.

Findlay called Wat’s departure a “a betrayal of the hardworking volunteers, campaign workers and voters who helped get her elected.”

She said in a statement Wednesday that she apologized to Wat privately in July and the pair issued statements addressing the matter, but that nearly a month later Wat wanted a second apology.

Findlay said she prepared a statement on Monday addressing her concerns and that Wat “wrote that she was supportive of its contents.”

“I was prepared to publicly address the matter in good faith. MLA Wat’s resignation post this morning was made without any prior communication to me,” she said in the statement.

“I am disappointed in MLA Wat’s actions after making repeated efforts to address her concerns directly and in good faith.”

Findlay narrowly won the B.C. Conservative leadership race in May. In addition to the depletion of the caucus, the party has since also seen high-profile staffing departures, including president Aisha Estey, vice-president Sharon White and executive director Angelo Isidorou.

Those staffing departures have now been followed by the exit of Chung.

“As of this morning I have directed my Chief of Staff to terminate the Director of Operations for the B.C. Conservative Caucus, effective immediately,” Findlay posted on social media on Wednesday, without elaborating or naming Chung.

On Tuesday, Findlay held her first news conference as leader, acknowledging that other MLAs may leave caucus after the departures of Paton and Milobar. Bird quit hours later.

But Findlay said Tuesday that those leaving were doing so without “a vision of prosperity and hope” that the B.C. Conservatives are presenting to the province.

“It means somewhere along the way, they’ve decided that they know better than us where we should be going,” Findlay said.

Bird, Paton and Milobar all cited a divergence of the party’s values under Findlay from their own as a major reason for parting ways.

In her statement, Bird said British Columbians “should be able to firmly reject racism, antisemitism, homophobia and hatred while still having difficult and necessary conversations about immigration, Indigenous reconciliation, addiction, crime, gender, religion and the many other issues on which reasonable people sometimes disagree.”

Bird will sit as an Independent alongside Wat, while Paton and Milobar have said they intend to form a party that offers British Columbians who do not support the Conservatives under Findlay and Premier David Eby’s New Democrats a political home.

The B.C. Conservatives came to the brink of power in 2024, winning 44 seats, but their ranks have since dwindled to 33.

MLA Elenore Sturko, who was fired from the Conservative caucus in September 2025 by then-leader John Rustad and now sits as an independent, said in an interview on Wednesday that she expects more people will leave the party.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 26, 2026.