When members of the B.C. Conservative caucus voted yes on first reading of a bill introduced on Feb. 26 by Independent MLA Tara Armstrong to repeal the province’s human rights code, social media sites lit up almost immediately with critics outraged that so many members of the legislature would support such a thing.
Much of that outrage was generated initially by government MLAs, seizing on the opportunity to portray the opposition as extremists.
“The B.C. Conservatives just voted to legalize discrimination based on race, sex and other characteristics,” Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon wrote in a post that was viewed nearly 70,000 times. “They have voted to stop other bills at first reading during this parliament, but not this one.”
So what does this mean? First reading of the bill was defeated by a vote of 50 to 37 — but did 34 Conservatives (three aye votes were from Independents) vote in support of repealing the human rights code and getting rid of the human rights commissioner, as Armstrong’s bill calls for?
Not according to the Conservative MLAs themselves, who point out that it is common practice — almost universally adhered to in the B.C. legislature — for all MLAs to support first reading. Otherwise, they do not get a chance to actually read the bill.
“It’s tradition,” said B.C. Conservative MLA Peter Milobar. “It’s very common, and in fact, it used to happen every single time.”
This changed after Armstrong and MLA Dallas Brodie left the Conservative Party last March. The pair introduced a slew of incendiary pieces of legislation in 2025, and the NDP called a standing vote on each one.
Former Conservative Party leader John Rustad and his caucus opted to vote against these, lest they be seen to support controversial positions.
New interim party Leader Trevor Halford says he is taking the traditional approach.
Halford acknowledged that by voting against first reading in several instances last year, the party had fallen into a bit of a trap of its own making, in that the government can now call out MLAs every time they vote for a controversial bill at first reading. But in the long run, the goal is to get back to a place where these votes are non-controversial again.
“We want to be focused on the task at hand, and that’s not getting caught up in these politics of first reading, full stop,” he said.
Milobar says he also wants to read a bill before deciding whether he supports it. He cites the example of a government bill altering freedom of information procedures that was introduced the same day as Armstrong’s bill. He heard the Citizens’ Services Minister Diana Gibson introduce the bill, and it sounded like something he might be open to supporting.
Then he read the bill and changed his mind, saying he thinks it will impede public access to information.
“It’s always important to read the legislation,” he said.
Private members’ bills — as opposed to government bills, which are introduced by ministers and usually have a decent chance of becoming law — are debated only on Monday mornings, and generally don’t pass second reading, the point at which an ‘aye’ vote could fairly be seen as support.
And even if a bill passes this test, it still must go through the committee stage, where it can be altered, and then pass a final third reading.
Only one private member’s bill introduced by an opposition MLA has passed in recent decades — Conservative MLA Jody Toor’s Perinatal and Postnatal Mental Health Strategy Act, which calls to integrate prenatal and postnatal mental health care into the health system. Toor’s bill passed with unanimous support last May.
The B.C. Greens also managed to get three of these types of bills passed in recent years, but that was when the party had a confidence-and-supply agreement with the governing NDP.
When a private member’s bill fails at first reading, the assembly doesn’t even get a chance to read it. Milobar says he still doesn’t even know what Armstrong’s bill actually says; he only knows what she said about it when introducing it. Black Press Media reached out to Armstrong for a copy, but did not receive a response.
Stewart Prest, a University of British Columbia political science lecturer, said that while it is uncommon for a bill to be voted down at first reading, there are a couple of instances when it does happen.
The government may decide a bill is simply “mischievous,” and try to kill it on first reading. Or the opposition and government could feel a bill is so extreme that it is worth debating.
He says it is up to the B.C. Conservatives to indicate where they stand on that second point.
“They, at a minimum, could help themselves by clarifying what this red line is they’re trying to maintain,” he said.