Former B.C. Conservative Boultbee crosses to NDP, calling out ‘Trump-style populism’

British Columbia’s NDP government has more breathing room with a two-seat majority in the legislature after adding member Amelia Boultbee, who has openly criticized her former Conservative party and its new leader over what she sees as a swing toward “Trump-style populism.”

Boultbee was elected to represent Penticton-Summerland under the B.C. Conservative banner in 2024 by a few hundred votes but left the party to sit as an Independent about a year later after a falling out with former leader John Rustad.

She told a joint news conference with NDP Premier David Eby on Friday that the Conservatives are offering an approach that would “set our province back and leave us more divided.”

“I’ve always believed that politics should be about respecting each other, while working to solve problems, and those values have never changed. However, the party I was first elected with has,” she said.

“What was promised to me and many others as a big-tent party gets smaller by the day. With a new leader more consumed with divisive Donald Trump-style populism than with things that actually matter to people, it’s clearer now than ever that they’re offering no real solutions.”

She said she made the move from an Independent with her constituents in mind.

“There are a lot of things going on in this province that people didn’t vote for, the way that party has gone so far to the right. British Columbians did not vote for that leader. There’s an entirely new political party that never existed,” she said.

“What my constituents did vote for was for me to be their MLA, for me to be their advocate, and to do the best job that I can in representing them, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Hours after the announcement that she would become the 48th member of the NDP caucus, Boultbee posted on social media: “48th. So we won’t be the 51st,” an apparent refence to the U.S. president’s calls to make Canada the 51st state.

Kerry-Lynne Findlay was named Conservative leader at a convention in May, and at the time, Boultbee called the victory a sign that part of the B.C. Conservative base and board want to take the party “further and further to the right.”

“There’s a world in which I might have been able to get behind her, if she had cut out some of the more further-to-the-right stuff,” Boultbee said at the time.

Findlay, who was in Penticton on Friday as part of her first caucus meeting as leader, told reporters she didn’t understand Boultbee’s decision to move to the New Democrats.

“The question I would have is, why are you joining a sinking ship? All the polls show that the NDP has lost ground, that British Columbians don’t have faith in them continuing. So, that is a choice she’s made,” she said.

Eby praised Boultbee’s experience and said her move to the NDP reflected a chance to have a strong voice from the South Okanagan.

“It will help us deliver better for the Okanagan, but it will also help our whole caucus. Amelia brings significant skills to the table, both through her legal training and background, but also her standing up for the human rights of people who the Conservatives were willing to throw away,” he said.

“She stands on principle, and that’s why I’m glad to stand beside her.”

Eby said that when Boultbee left the Conservatives, “she was subject to some of the most petty, awful, reprehensible personal attacks that I have seen since being in politics.”

“I will say that she will have the full support and protections of our entire team as she comes on board here,” he said.

With Boultbee’s addition, the New Democrats now have 48 members in the provincial legislature and the B.C. Conservatives have 38, with two Greens and five Independents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2026.

Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press