Vernon-Lake Country-Monashee MP Scott Anderson has endorsed Iain Black as the candidate he’d most like to see win the B.C. Conservative Party’s leadership race.
Anderson was the leader of the Conservatives from 2017 to 2019, when the party was on the margins of B.C. politics. The party’s next leader will take over the province’s Official Opposition.
Black previously spoke to The Morning Star during a stop at Jitter Beans Coffee House in Lumby last month, when he described himself as a “turnaround guy” and made the case for why he’s the best person for the top Conservative job.
In a social media post Saturday, March 21, Anderson said Black is his “top pick” to lead the Conservatives.
Black is one of seven candidates in the leadership race, running against Warren Hamm, Darrell Jones, Peter Milobar, Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Caroline Elliott and Yuri Fulmer. Anderson said Black is “the only one with a detailed plan rooted in the possible rather than the aspirational, and that is crucial in politics. It’s easy to have great ideas, and very much harder to have great ideas that are actually possible.”
Anderson listed three criteria for a candidate to get his support: they must have a chance to win, they must be conservative and they must have experience in government.
Anderson disqualified Hamm and Jones based on the first criteria, saying Hamm is too much of an unknown and Jones “has no political experience and no idea what he’d do as a leader.”
On his requirement that the next Conservative leader be conservative in values, Anderson said he has “no desire to see the resurrection of the BC Liberals 2.0.”
That, he said, eliminated Peter Milobar, “who is known to be from the Liberal side of the BC Liberals.”
It also puts stress on Elliot, “who says all the right words now, but whose previous statements and academic posturing say something quite different,” Anderson said.
Fulmer lacks experience in government, so while he is an “interesting candidate” as a successful businessman with a conservative philosophy, he didn’t pass Anderson’s criteria.
That left Black and Findlay, who Anderson said have exceptional resumes, are both conservative and both have political experience.
“I have no doubt that either could be leader,” Anderson said.
However, he chose to endorse Black over Findlay in part because he believes Findlay “will struggle uniting the provincial caucus because she is used to leading by tight control.”
The Conservative leadership race wraps up May 30.