VICTORIA – The interim leader of B.C.‘s newest political party says it will raise issues other parties won’t dare to touch.
Dallas Brodie said these included the effects of the “reconciliation industry,” electoral reform, and ending mass immigration, and she will “let the chips fall where they may” when it’s time to run for re-election.
The new One BC party went public on Thursday, with Brodie announcing herself as interim leader and Tara Armstrong house leader as they unveiled plans to combat what Brodie called “the globalist assault” on B.C.‘s history, culture and families.
“Tara and I are taking a principled stance,” Brodie said in an interview on Friday. “We believe that there is room for the discussions that we are raising, and we will take our shots at the polls, and we will do our best to build (the party).”
Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad kicked Brodie out of caucus in March following comments about residential schools, and Armstrong and Jordan Kealy followed her out.
All three sat as Independents before the creation of One BC, and Kealy said he hasn’t ruled out joining the new party, although he has doubts about its chances.
Brodie said the party has four planks: major cuts to taxes and government spending; dismantling “the reconciliation industry and ending racist laws like … the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act;” ending mass immigration, and introducing democratic reform that would see most B.C. residents vote on the same day with ballots counted by hand.
The party’s website also calls for the support of a “broad array of life-affirming policies to increase birthrates, marriage rates, and life expectancy among other indicators of a healthy and vibrant society.”
Brodie acknowledged that her former party had campaigned on many of those issues, when asked what her new party is offering that the Conservatives aren’t.
“Also what we ran on was being strong on social issues, and that has been all watered down by the Conservative Party,” she said. ”(There) is almost no difference between them and the NDP that I can see at this point — it’s NDP and NDP Light.”
Brodie said she believes there are other members of the legislature who will join her party, but she declined to identify them.
Two sitting members in the house give One BC official party status, which Brodie said would make the party more “interesting to other MLAs, who are still in the Conservative caucus.”
Kealy said in an interview Friday that he questioned the new party’s electoral prospects.
“I think they’ll have a very difficult time getting re-elected, because I think that spectrum of (potential) voters is becoming disenfranchised, and in all honesty, I think talk is cheap.”
Kealy said his role as an MLA is to fix existing problems in his riding of Peace River North, adding that his experience of seeing the Conservatives turn into a “big tent party” has made him “cautious” about joining another party.
“I have said that even before I joined the Conservative Party, that I am doing this for my region first and foremost, and I will not be whipped by a party.”
Brodie said the door remains open for Kealy.
Mark Marissen, a political strategist and former mayoral candidate in Vancouver, said on social media that the emergence of One BC is the birth of a “new anti-First Nations political party.”
When asked about Marissen’s comments, Brodie said the effects of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act need to be discussed in open and her party is committed to repealing it.
“It’s taking a lot of communities by surprise,” she said.
Brodie, who represents Vancouver-Quilchena, said the legislature needs to be a place where “there are no topics that are off limit.”
She said few people want to discuss the law passed by the NDP government on the rights of Indigenous Peoples in an “open” and “transparent” manner.
“They (would) just rather call people names, and shut down the conversation, and that’s not going to help B.C.,” she said.
Armstrong is the MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream.
Brodie has been criticized in the past for comments about First Nations.
In February, she wrote on social media that the “number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Residential School site is zero.”
Speaking at an election event in October 2024, Brodie said First Nations demanding autonomy must take responsibility for the problems of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
”(When) a large percentage of your people are on the Downtown Eastside, it’s important that you come take responsibility for that piece as well,” she said. “It’s not OK to leave your people dying.”
Brodie said she doesn’t deny what has happened at residential schools.
The New Democratic Party said in a statement that the One BC members are “fixated on spreading anti-Indigenous racism, attacking the LGBTQ+ community (and) stoking western separatism.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2025.
