Andrew Weaver Is Back as a CentreBC Candidate

Andrew Weaver’s campaign has no manager, financial agent, lawn signs or money, but he is jumping into the British Columbia election as CentreBC’s candidate in the Vancouver Island riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

“I made the decision yesterday,” Weaver said Wednesday at a park in the constituency he represented for two terms as a BC Green MLA. “I made the decision after I found out the people who came from the B.C. Conservatives to CentreBC went back.”

The chain of events began when Premier David Eby announced the snap Oct. 24 election, saying his NDP government needs a stronger mandate to protect the province against tariffs and threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Seven MLAs who a few days earlier had joined CentreBC, a party formed by disgruntled BC United members after the 2024 election, responded to the election call by returning to the Conservatives. They included Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar, who briefly led CentreBC, and others willing to work with Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson, who took over as interim leader after Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s resignation Sunday.

That left Elenore Sturko, the MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, as the lone incumbent running with CentreBC. She replaced Milobar as leader and the party pledged it will run as many candidates as it can.

Weaver, who joined CentreBC last December, said he has been on the sidelines of B.C. politics for six years and has been busy working on his wife Jordan Weaver’s campaign for a seat on Saanich council. He hadn’t planned to seek election himself.

“I couldn’t stand by anymore,” he said. “The ingrained cynicism of Mr. Eby’s call for an election prompted me to say, you know what, I’ll step up and put my support behind Elenore Sturko, who has shown enormous integrity, profound courage, and is exactly the type of person we need leading a party in these difficult times.”

He’d watched the Conservative Party of BC go from nothing to nearly forming government after the last election, then imploding and again rebuilding, Weaver said. “It’s chaos.”

To see a group of MLAs return to the Conservatives just days after joining CentreBC was too much, said Weaver. “It left a taste that once again we’re seeing politicians put their interests, their desire for power and election ahead of their principles and integrity and ethical values.”

In 2013 Weaver was the first BC Green MLA elected to the legislature. He led the party into the 2017 election where it won three seats and held the balance of power. An agreement with the NDP led to John Horgan becoming premier.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with John Horgan,” said Weaver, who after his time in office returned to teaching climate science at the University of Victoria. “I thought he was one of British Columbia’s most effective premiers, certainly in my lifetime. I’ve watched the trust that was built from that time begin to unravel.”

Eby’s rationale for the current election is an indication of just how different the NDP is under his leadership, Weaver said.

“I don’t think there’s a single person in the province of British Columbia who believes [the election] is about Donald Trump,” he said.