Yuri Fulmer is running for the B.C. Conservative Party leadership because he wants to fix what he called a “province in crisis.”
He says British Columbians face a broken healthcare system, unsafe streets, unaffordable living costs, and worries about private property rights due to recent Indigenous rights court decisions.
“I share their concerns on all of these, and I’m running to make sure that there’s a government that can fix it,” Fulmer told Black Press Media in an interview.
The next Conservative leader also faces the difficult task of repairing division within the party that, at times in 2025, looked like it could split the caucus in two. Over the course of the year, five MLAs left or were removed from the party, and discontent led to a brief moment when two different people stood in the B.C. legislature hallway claiming to lead the party.
John Rustad eventually relented and stepped down, allowing interim leader Trevor Halford to take the reins. Halford says he does not want the job long-term, and a leadership race committee has now been struck.
Fulmer, a businessman, chancellor of Capilano University, and former B.C. Conservative candidate for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, is the first big-name candidate to step forward officially. He dismissed some of the division.
“I think it’s easy to point to the issues that we may not agree on, and easy to gloss over the issues where we do agree on,” he said.
This does not mean he wants a free-for-all in the legislature.
“I think you want to have an incredibly robust discussion in the caucus room,” he said. “But if every member of caucus needs everything that they believe in the party agenda, we will keep losing elections. We have to stay focused.”
Before ejecting people, Fulmer says a leader should first try to find out why the person decided to go against the party line. But he still wants some control over the agenda.
“Ultimately, if somebody wants to go their own path, I think whether it’s in the workplace or whether it’s in government, if somebody wants to go their own path, they should go out and find their own path,” Fulmer said.
MLAs Dallas Brodie, Tara Armstrong and Jordan Kealy did just that, leaving or being asked to leave after Brodie repeatedly posted on social media questioning the evidence of graves at residential schools, against the wishes of party leader Rustad. The other two, Elenore Sturko and Amelia Boultbee, left for different reasons: Sturko was booted and accused of leaking information, then Boultbee quit, saying Rustad was “unravelling.”
Fulmer did not rule out bringing back any of those five exiles should he be chosen as the next leader. He said that would be a decision up to the caucus.
“I would hope that they would want to rejoin the big blue tent, and I would have that discussion with caucus at that time,” Fulmer said, adding that he would also be open to having discussions with any NDP defectors who are “sick of the nonsense.”
He hopes to grow the B.C. Conservative Party membership through his leadership campaign, acknowledging the need to hive off some support from the other side.
“The only way we can win the next election is by persuading people who voted for the NDP to come and vote for us,” he said.