Richmond-Bridgeport legislator Teresa Wat is the latest member to quit the B.C. Conservatives after announcing Wednesday she could no longer serve under leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay.

Wat, who will sit as an Independent, said in a statement that Findlay failed to apologize over “serious and unfounded accusations” the new leader reportedly made in a group chat about Wat that questioned her allegiance to Canada.

“These remarks were distasteful, hurtful and made me question my place in the B.C. Conservatives under her leadership,” Wat said in her statement.

The statement announcing her departure from the party cited widely reported remarks attributed to Findlay that called Wat “CCP,” a reference to the Chinese Communist Party. Wat, a Hong Kong immigrant, represents a riding that is heavily ethnically Chinese.

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.

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.

“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.

“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.

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 those who 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.

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