Findlay’s chief of staff resigns as two more MLAs quit B.C. Conservative caucus

Two more legislators have quit British Columbia’s Opposition Conservatives, with Scott McInnes and Donegal Wilson both citing Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay’s reported connections to Alberta separatists as part of a series of concerns.

McInnes becomes the ninth MLA to defect in less than three weeks, announcing his departure a little over two hours after Wilson’s.

Minutes after McInnes issued a statement saying he would sit as an Independent in Columbia River-Revelstoke, Findlay announced her chief of staff, Chris Delaney, had resigned.

Delaney has been at the centre of allegations that legislators were improperly offered jobs in exchange for resigning so Findlay, who does not have a seat in the legislature, could run in a byelection.

One of the legislators who quit the caucus last week, Ian Paton, has said Delaney offered him a job as an adviser in exchange for resignation as an MLA, and the RCMP had since arranged to interview him.

McInnes says there are “serious ethical questions” around Findlay’s team, as well as reported connections to Alberta separatism, which Wilson also cited in a statement announcing she would sit as an Independent in Boundary-Similkameen.