The BC Conservatives beat the odds and seized the Legislature after months of turmoil, and three Thompson-Okanagan MLAs perhaps did the most to risk the outcome.

Three defectors would shape the evolving party as it was revived from non-existence into government over a span of two years.

In a span of 18 months, Amelia Boultbee, Tara Armstrong and Peter Milobar each marked a new fracture in the big tent party, which lost almost 20 seats by late-September, only to rally and defeat the BC NDP in the snap election.

The 2024 provincial election, already a surprising performance by the Conservatives, ended with a narrow majority where the BC NDP held 47 seats, the Conservatives won 44 and the Greens just two. Months of right-wing turmoil gave the NDP a healthy majority, now squandered.

The first sign of trouble involved Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Armstrong. In March 2025, she left the Conservatives arm-in-arm with Dallas Brodie and Jordan Kealy. Brodie and Armstrong would form the far-right splinter party OneBC, but the Okanagan MLA later found herself ousted as an independent.

The party never held more than a two-seat presence in the Legislature, but it hived off some of the Conservatives’ more extreme social conservative faction.

By October 2025, former Penticton-Summerland MLA Boultbee’s defection came just a month after Elenore Sturko was fired from caucus and would ripple into a leadership crisis. Then-leader John Rustad was forced out by party leadership and 20 of its 39 remaining MLAs.

Boultbee has since been vocal about her problems with the Conservatives, its members and policy direction since leaving the party that got her elected only two years ago. She spent several months as an independent before crossing the floor to the BC NDP.

Rustad’s replacement, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, was mired by controversy and in-fighting, culminating in the revelation that a private investigator was probing MLAs and a journalist, including Boultbee.

A subsequent mass defection nearly risked the party’s existence just a month ago. It started with Kamloops Centre MLA Milobar.

Milobar failed to win a party leadership race in the spring and, by August, said his values didn’t “align” with the direction under Kerry-Lynne Findlay. Ten more would resign and three were removed in less than six weeks.

By the time Findlay resigned on Sept. 20, the BC Conservative Party had 28 seats, Centre BC had eight and the NDP still had 47, following MLA Joan Phillip’s and Boultbee’s floor-crossing. Then-premier David Eby called an election two days later, and nearly all the Centre BC MLAs unceremoniously returned to the Conservatives, led by Milobar.

Milobar went from BC United, to BC Conservative, to independent, to Centre BC and back to the BC Conservative Party in a span of two years.

He was also the only one of these three MLAs to run for re-election. It was his fourth consecutive win, but it’s the first time he will serve in government. After serving in official critic roles for six years, he’s a top contender for a cabinet role in the Conservative government.

Boultbee and Armstrong, both one-term MLAs, bowed out of the 2026 election and their ridings returned to the BC Conservatives.

The right-of-centre party claimed 63 seats, including all but two Interior seats in the Kootenays. The now-opposition BC NDP is leaderless and won 28 seats after nine years in government.