MLA Teresa Wat says she's quitting BC United and joining B.C. Conservatives to beat NDP

A veteran Opposition member announced her defection to British Columbia's Conservatives on Tuesday, becoming the fourth elected member to bolt to Leader John Rustad's right-of-centre party ahead of the fall provincial election.

Teresa Wat said quitting the Opposition BC United Party to join Rustad's Conservatives is the only path available for a free-enterprise coalition to defeat the New Democrats in the Oct. 19 election.

Wat, an 11-year veteran at the B.C. legislature and a strong multicultural representative of the suburban Vancouver City of Richmond, said that getting rid of David Eby's New Democrats is her top priority and the B.C. Conservatives offer the best opportunity.

"After countless conversations with the constituents in my riding of Richmond North Centre, it became clear that the number 1 issue I hear all day, every day, is that the B.C. NDP must be defeated in the next election," she said at a news conference alongside Rustad. "It has also become clear that the best party to defeat the NDP is the B.C. Conservative Party."

Wat joins former BC United members Bruce Banman, Elenore Sturko and Lorne Doerkson who have also signed on with the B.C. Conservatives, boosting the party caucus to five members in B.C.'s 87 seat legislature.

The B.C. Conservatives, who received less than two per cent of the popular vote in B.C.'s 2020 election, now appear to be in a current polling position where they could challenge the NDP to form government this fall, said Mary Polak, a former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister and a four-term member of the legislature.

BC United was formerly known as the B.C. Liberals, but party members supported a name change in April 2023.

Polak said polls offer a snap shot in time and are not always indicative of what can happen during a campaign or on election day, but the "trend is not going in BC United's way."

She said it would be "generous" at this time to see support for the BC United rise above the Green Party, which won three seats in 2017 and two seats in 2020.

"For them to get back to a place where they are contenders, something huge would have to happen," said Polak.

She said she understood Wat's decision to join the Conservatives.

"I'm not surprised," Polak said. "Teresa works hard. She knows her community and she's going to be looking and saying, 'where do I best line up.'"

Wat said over the past months it became apparent to her and her constituents the B.C. Conservatives are in the best position to defeat the NDP.

"All day, every day when I walk around my riding, Richmond North Centre, when I'm sitting in the restaurant enjoying my dim sum lunch, when I'm shopping getting my groceries in the supermarket, when I'm waiting to have my cat have a grooming, when I'm shopping trying to buy some clothes in the mall, everybody comes to me and says, 'Teresa, we need to defeat the NDP.'"

Wat said she was disappointed the BC United party suggested she's taken sensitive voter information with her to the Conservatives, saying she did nothing untoward and will follow election rules.

She said the information was part of her riding's election-readiness preparations.

"It's really regrettable BC United used this line of attack against me."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2024.