Former B.C. Liberal MLA says centrist party is the answer for voters tired of 'extremes'

Former B.C. Liberal MLA says centrist party is the answer for voters tired of 'extremes'

Mike Bernier is the new leader of Centre B.C.

After seven years in opposition critic roles, including finance critic, Bernier says the governing NDP is no better, blaming Eby for mismanaging the economy, health care and the affordability crisis. He says British Columbians are tired of the “divisive downward spiral of extreme politics.”

Bernier says he’s already getting phone calls from former B.C. Liberals, as well as current and former NDP and Conservative MLAs.

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“They just feel abandoned by their parties and they're done. They feel they're not being represented anymore.”

Bernier was the MLA for Peace River South from 2013 to 2024, elected under the B.C. Liberal banner before the party changed its name to B.C. United under Kevin Falcon.

Bernier was not taken on as a B.C. Conservative candidate in August 2024 after B.C. United withdrew from the election campaign and threw its support behind former B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad. Some Conservatives expressed concerns with Bernier’s role as the B.C. Liberal education minister, who brought in sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) policies in schools in 2016. The B.C. Conservatives under both Rustad and Findlay have promised to abolish SOGI, saying it brings “ideology” into the classrooms.

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Bernier says the anti-SOGI rhetoric is the “perfect example of the divisive and fear-tactic politics” that have proliferated in B.C., especially in the last election.

“I'll never apologize for putting people and children first. The safety of people in our schools, that's what we did. We made sure that we put anti-bullying policies forward.”

Bernier ran as an Independent in the 2024 provincial election and lost.

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Bernier was selected by the Centre B.C. board to take over from former B.C. Liberal MLA Karin Kirkpatrick. She formed the party in April 2025 because she said the choice between the B.C. Conservatives, under Rustad, and NDP, under Eby, left her “politically homeless.”

The B.C. Liberal name can’t be revived because it is still owned by B.C. United, which is still led by Falcon.

Centre B.C. sitting at single-digit support in recent polls

A June poll by Research Co. found just three per cent of respondents said they would support Centre B.C. Bernier is undeterred. “I think you're going to see that polling number change very quickly,” he said.

That same poll put the B.C. Conservatives and B.C. NDP neck and neck, both with 42 per cent support.

B.C.’s premier says he doesn’t think Centre B.C. has been particularly successful but he “wishes anyone who wants to get involved in the democratic process good luck.”

Who now represents the centre in B.C. politics?

Eby tried to set his party apart from the Official Opposition Friday, slamming the party for hiring former Juno News editor Cosmin Dzsurdzsa as its director of communications. Several B.C. Conservative staffers who worked under Rustad and interim leader Trevor Halford have been fired as Findlay tries to rebuild her caucus leadership team.

Eby said Dzsurdzsa “thinks the Conservative movement is strengthened by including people who would deport Canadians who happen to not be white back to what are supposedly their home countries even though they were born in Canada. That is a reprehensible and racist view.”

Earlier this year, former Alberta premier Jason Kenney criticized Dzsurdzsa and Juno News for giving a debate platform to Daniel Tyrie, the former executive director of the far-right People's Party of Canada. Tyrie now heads the Dominion Society, a group the Canadian Anti-Hate Network has described as part of "Canada's white nationalist movement."

On social media in February, Dzsurdzsa defended the debate, titled “How to reverse the disastrous impact of [Justin] Trudeau’s mass immigration policy.” He wrote: "For the better part of a decade anyone who even questioned the suicidal mass immigration orthodoxy thrust upon countries like Canada was smeared as a ‘racist.’”

The party has also hired Apollo Chung as its director of operations and stakeholder relations.

Chung previously worked as the chief financial officer for the Republican Party of Alberta, a party which has campaigned for Alberta to separate from the rest of Canada and which has sought support from U.S. politicians to do so. Chung also worked as a constituency assistant for NDP Finance Minister Brenda Bailey until 2021. CBC News requested an interview with Findlay about a range of topics, including the recent hires.

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"David Eby, in keeping with his extremist socialist ideology, just returned from a visit to China, instead of concerning himself with yet another pulp mill closure in Prince George and all the consequent job and economic losses," Findlay said through her chief of staff in a written statement.

"David Eby thought it was a good idea to give China $1B of B.C. taxpayers’ money to build ferries that British Columbians could’ve built instead. He is a radical leftist who is bereft of ideas and divides British Columbians by race. He is in no position to lecture anyone about anything," the statement continued.

University of British Columbia political scientist Stewart Prest said some of Findlay's hires in caucus leadership roles could be “alienating” to voters, which could create some appetite for a centrist option. Prest says in the current first-past-the-post system makes it harder for small parties to succeed, making it an uphill battle for Centre B.C. As for the B.C. Conservative and NDP MLAs Bernier says are curious about Centre B.C. under his leadership, he wouldn’t name names.

Katie DeRosa is the provincial affairs reporter for CBC British Columbia. She is based in Victoria. You can contact her at katie.derosa@cbc.ca.