NP View: Caroline Elliott is a beacon of hope for B.C.

Caroline Elliott, one of the contenders for the leadership of the B.C. Conservative Party. Credit: Stuart McNish. March 2026. For Conversations That Matter

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Nowhere has the progressive takeover of our institutions been more complete, or more destructive, than in British Columbia. Thankfully, the Opposition B.C. Conservative Party has the opportunity to elect a leader (voting starts May 9) whose platform is a beacon of hope for the province and indeed the rest of Canada. Caroline Elliott, a longtime B.C. activist and commentator, doesn’t just want to bring in minor reforms to staunch the bleeding, she is pledging to gut the whole operation and build it anew. Conservatives across Canada take note, if Elliott wins the leadership and then wins power, B.C. will be leading the way on what a Conservative government can achieve.

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B.C. should be teeming with wealth and pride, instead it is stagnating under an NDP government that has embedded identity politics into every level of policy, stifled economic development, flooded streets with drugs and pushed an extreme ideological agenda onto young minds in our schools.

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The B.C. NDP’s approach to Indigenous policy has been particularly secretive, undemocratic, a threat to the economy, and maybe even a threat to the existence of B.C. as a Canadian province.

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To address this, first and foremost, Elliott’s platform promises to “Immediately scrap the NDP’s disastrous DRIPA legislation,” which forces all provincial laws to be aligned with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). A straight reading of UNDRIP, which was only intended to be aspirational, could theoretically mean that 95 per cent of the province should be handed over to First Nations. UNDRIP also requires free and informed consent from First Nations before development, a much more expansive rule than the Supreme Court’s duty to consult.

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The consequences of this approach are readily apparent. The B.C. government has signed over control to vast areas of land, or given various decision making powers over land usage, to multiple First Nations, in deals that were either secret or did not involve input from the very public that would be affected by these arrangements.

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Elliott’s plan is to not only repeal DRIPA, but repeal provisions from these deals “that provide veto power over public land and resources, threaten private property or otherwise undermine the public interest and/or democratic principles.”

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This should be reassuring for Indigenous and non-Indigenous British Columbians alike. Relationships between the government and First Nations must not be hidden if they are to be productive. Consulting with and respecting the Constitutional rights of First Nations is one thing, but expansive land deals that hinder the ability for the province to be democratically governed is radical and extreme.

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Elliott is the moderate here.

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Instead of economic development hindered by the NDP’s misguided approach to reconciliation, Elliott would ensure that private property was protected, project permitting was streamlined and the net-zero fantasies of the current government folded into the trash bin.

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On every issue that is important to not only Conservative voters, but also to pretty much anyone but the most stubbornly progressive, Elliot’s platform is refreshingly clear and to the point. There is little unnecessary nuance, while virtue signalling and winking at activists is entirely absent.