Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream’s former MLA Tara Armstrong isn’t seeking re-election.

Armstrong refused to answer if she would run again until the last moment, but as the nomination deadline arrived she announced she was calling it quits.

“If I were to run now as an Independent, with a three-way vote split on the right, a likely outcome would be another NDP MLA. In an election this tight, that could be enough to doom BC to another Eby majority,” she said. “I’m not going to do that to my fellow British Columbians. I have decided, therefore, not to seek re-election on October 24th, 2026.”

Armstrong was elected as a BC Conservative in 2024 before leaving the party, sitting as an independent, starting the OneBC party, then she was kicked out of OneBC and sat as an independent until the election call.

Her announcement wasn’t a surprise to the organization trying to get her ousted from office, the Recall Tara Armstrong Campaign.

“Our campaign is really happy with the outcome,” campaign organizer John Plant told iNFOnews.ca.

Armstrong listed her quarrel with OneBC and her desire not to split the conservative vote as reasons for her decision. But, Plant figures her low chance at winning her seat back played a role as well.

“We think that our work contributed to her decision to not run,” Plant said. “Especially as an independent since she wasn’t able to find a political party to be happy with.”

The recall campaign against Armstrong had supporters from across the political spectrum, including voters who cast their ballot for her in 2024.

Armstrong’s work in the legislature focused on pushing back against trans rights, First Nations rights and new immigrants. She tried to introduce a bill to repeal the BC Human Rights Code but her effort was shot down immediately.

Armstrong is the cofounder of the new party OneBC but she had a falling out with her partner MLA Dallas Brodie over a staffer who was allegedly a white supremacist. Brodie wanted the staffer out, Armstrong kept him on board.

Brodie later filed a defamation lawsuit against Armstrong’s staffer over the dispute.

Armstrong said she tried to come back to OneBC to be their candidate this time around, but it didn’t work out.

“As for OneBC, I won’t rehash last year. What I do want you to know is that we tried to work with Dallas. We really did. And we tried to reconcile with her before the election, too,” Armstrong said in her announcement.

Election day is Oct. 24 and Armstrong won’t be on the ballot.