r/canadaguns • u/CalibreMag • Apr 16 '26
News / Politics / Activism Important news for BC gun owners
https://calibremag.ca/a-gun-owners-guide-to-the-conservative-party-of-british-columbia-leadership-candidates/The BC Conservative Party is electing a new leader.
I reached out to the various candidates, and summarized their stances on the gun bans in the linked article. The TL;DR is that only two bothered to respond:
Caroline Elliott says she would oppose the so-called "buyback" like AB, SK, and... MB?
Iain Black said he would oppose the so-called "buyback" and doesn't support the arbitrary bans themselves.
The really important thing to know is that the CPBC has less than 25K members, in a province with roughly 400K gun owners. That means that gun owners have a chance to have a very strong voice within the party that's most likely to defeat the provincial NDP - but only if we care to be heard.
And simply put, that is going to require gun owners get involved, by becoming party members. To vote in the leadership race, one needs to be a member by April 18th, at 5 pm to vote in the leadership race. It's $25 for four years, which is a small price to pay for the chance at getting AB-style protection from gun confiscations.
Come on, British Columbians, we can do this!
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u/jiggumz Apr 16 '26
Electing a conservative BC government will do nothing to stop the federal buy back
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u/Jaded-Juggernaut-244 Apr 16 '26
So we should probably do less than nothing and just re-elect Eby and crew and let the destruction continue right? Yeah, good plan!! Go team!
We can lose our guns, our shirts and our children's futures all at once!! Wicked!!
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u/some_guy2024 Apr 16 '26
It certainly won’t hurt. The more opposition the better. Never mind the fact that we need a conservative govt to undo all the commie nonsense the NDP have rammed through.
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u/SufficientProof40 Apr 16 '26
Weren’t these idiots called the Liberal Party of BC less than a decade ago?
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u/CalibreMag Apr 16 '26
No, that's the BC United party, which withdrew prior to the previous election.
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u/layzorbeemz Custom Flair (Be appropriate or else we'll take it away again) Apr 16 '26
Yeah but they were mostly BC liberal politicians before the BC United was a thing.
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u/CalibreMag Apr 16 '26
And I was once an NDP member.
Things change.
(Also everyone knew the BC Liberals had been anything but for some time. The name was almost a running joke.)
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u/layzorbeemz Custom Flair (Be appropriate or else we'll take it away again) Apr 16 '26
I'm just pointing out that a decade ago like the other dude said they were liberals. I know things change. I was a NDP voter too once upon a time.
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u/CalibreMag Apr 16 '26
Maybe I'm missing something, then. Because I legitimately don't understand.
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u/layzorbeemz Custom Flair (Be appropriate or else we'll take it away again) Apr 16 '26
The BC liberal party wasn't popular a decade ago. We want real conservatives, not liberals in conservative clothing. I doubt any of these politicians have changed much since 10 years ago.
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u/CalibreMag Apr 16 '26
The BC Liberals were in power from 2000 to 2020, and pretty solidly crushed the NDP the whole time. They were very popular specifically because they were a "big tent" party that occupied the entire political spectrum right of the NDP.
They were also notoriously not liberal.
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u/SufficientProof40 Apr 16 '26
We were all naive and young once, I also supported the NDP at one point.
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u/layzorbeemz Custom Flair (Be appropriate or else we'll take it away again) Apr 16 '26
My purpose for supporting them was purely because they stood for the blue collar working class back then. Now it's all nonsense.
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u/mywaaaaife Apr 16 '26
At this point anyone but Eby in power is a win for BC. Not sure who would've thought to take a full time activist for the Pivot Legal Society and put them in charge of an entire province was a good idea, but holy fuck.
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u/567432Gains Apr 16 '26
BC currently has the highest ratio of participants in terms of firearms signed up for the buy back : PAL holders. It could make a difference, potentially.
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u/mywaaaaife Apr 16 '26
We also have a fuckload of FUDDs here too.
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u/Ciggaris Apr 17 '26
We also have a fuckload of restricted pal holders who have restricted guns that are already registered compared to other provinces
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u/CalibreMag Apr 16 '26
A couple of quick comments upon seeing some of the replies:
1) The Conservative Party of BC =/= the BC Liberals. The BC Liberals became the BC United Party, led by Kevin Falcon. He kicked John Rustad out of the BC Liberals, and Rustad sat as an independent before joining the CPBC, which at the time had zero seats, but has existed for years.
2) If you want to say it's useless, that's obviously your prerogative, but doing nothing is otherwise known as giving up.
3) If gun owners constitute a big enough voting bloc within the CPBC, they won't have much choice but to join AB and SK in creating legislation to prevent confiscation, and that combined front will force Ottawa to view their gun bans/reforms as matters pertinent to national unity/western separatism. Which, considered alongside AB's already existing separatist movement and the pending SCC ruling, will only make maintaining the bans a less appetizing prospect for the PMO.
4) If you're not a conservative, that's totally A-OK. But this is a gun sub, and in BC, either the CPBC or NDP will form the next government. In the last election, the CPBC said they wouldn't support the bans, and the NDP replied by saying "[CPBC's] refusal to enforce bans on handguns and semi-automatic weapons would put people at greater risk."
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u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 Apr 17 '26
Plus it doesn't hurt to join, its easy and cheap. The way the polling looks right now the cons are likely to win the next election (i know that not the only factor but the NDP can't stop tripping over themselves) so even if you don't align with the conservatives, its not a bad idea to help pick who the next party leader is, other wise your leaving to the people willing to sign up for membership. The NDP is not going to drop eby before the next provincial election.
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u/GinnAdvent Apr 16 '26
Thanks for the info, I was looking for this when my friend mention to me that some Conservative leader candidates in BC are against buy back.
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u/N0_Cure Apr 16 '26
BC will elect NDP once again and wonder why nothing has changed. I have zero faith in this country, especially BC.
The cognitive dissonance is mind boggling. Let’s just elect yet another NDP / Liberal government in hopes that they will implement conservative polices which are overwhelmingly more popular, but let’s not actually vote conservative because the media (which is totally not biased) tells us not to.
SMH
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u/The_King_of_Canada mb Apr 16 '26
Wasn't their last leader so corrupt and incompetent that he lost to the deeply unpopular NDP incumbent?
I don't know man. Maybe vote for the one that shares your ideals instead of one that'll be toothless in the buyback. Not much they can do if they oppose it anyways.
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u/CalibreMag Apr 16 '26
Not that I recall.
The last leader was John Rustad, who was kicked out of the BC Liberals previously, sat as an independent, then joined the CPBC to give them their first seat in the Legislature.
At the beginning of 2024, he was the only seat they had; by Octber they'd won 44 seats to the NDP's 47. So, pretty impressive for a fledgling party structure.
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u/itsagrapefruit Apr 16 '26
I’ve been to events in my riding for Black, Elliot, Milobar, Fulmer, and Findlay. Every one of them spoke about opposing the confiscation program.
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u/GinnAdvent Apr 16 '26
I have been combing through BC subs with their names ever since I have been made aware of other candidates, and some of them have points worth examining further.
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u/KamBC Apr 16 '26
Single issue voting is never a good idea. Too many conservative MPs are religious whack jobs, science deniers, residential school deniers, climate deniers, Trump enjoyers, interested in what goes on in the privacy of people's bedrooms, or any combination of these. Hoping that one or two can make any difference in the FEDERAL gun grab for.the sacrifice of logix, ain't worth it. Can't enjoy my guns if I get fucking measles or everything has burned to the ground.
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u/CalibreMag Apr 16 '26
Might be an unpopular take, but I don't think there's anything more wrong with single-issue voting than there is with people who don't. That's the beautiful part of democracy; everyone's free to cast a ballot for whomever they want, for whatever reason(s) they want.
The only thing I'll say about whackjobs in politics, though, is that it's a universal issue. To reach the level of elected representative usually requires extremely strong convictions, leading to an above-average number of people with (relatively) extreme views in the role - on both the right and the left.
And in the modern age of "big tent" parties, you're always going to have to deal with personalities you don't like regardless of who you support, so the best thing to do is, 1) get involved in your chosen party so your voice can be heard, or if you don't have time for that, 2) prioritize the likely outcomes of a party forming government over the individual personalities involved.
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u/KamBC Apr 16 '26
That's a fair take, and you are correct in regards to democracy, and the ability to cast a ballot in any way you see fit. I am a fan of voiding my ballots as I get older, rather than aligning myself with one or two policies I agreed to in my younger days.
Also correct about whackjobs, but I think those can easily be weighed to what causes the most harm. I always have looked at the extreme preppers and militant hippies as two sides of the same coin, so I get it.
I have tried being more involved at times., but honestly, it always feels like I am either being lectured or preached to, and that makes me check out real quick. I will always cast my ballot, but it will likely be the aforementioned voided type, because no parties have my best interests in mind. The only wasted vote in my mind is the ones where people don't bother at all, apathy is bad news no matter where you stand.
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u/Jaded-Juggernaut-244 Apr 16 '26
Saying one issue voting is never good in one breath and then spoiling your ballot in the next is something else. Wow...when they come knocking for your guns don't wonder why. Know. Know it's because you actively chose to sit on your hands and do nothing.
You can look yourself straight in the mirror and put the blame exactly where it belongs. But you won't because that would put too much pressure on you...you'd be preaching to yourself. Couldn't have that.
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u/KamBC Apr 17 '26
This right here, is part of the problem.
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u/Jaded-Juggernaut-244 Apr 17 '26
For sure. I'm your problem. No doubt.
Always someone else's fault. That's a great path in life, good luck with it.
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u/KamBC Apr 17 '26
Oh I'm not blaming you for anything in my life, it's actually going pretty good.
You're the one saying that voiding a ballot, is somehow worse than single issue voting. Voiding a ballot is a legitimate right of the voter. So instead of sacrificing my morals because I agree with one thing, I'm telling the government that I ain't buying into any of their shit.
Now, if I didn't vote, you'd absolutely be correct. Get off the high horse, as you said not so long ago "We're all Canadians, stop being afraid of your neighbours."
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u/Jaded-Juggernaut-244 Apr 17 '26
A spoiled ballot is effectually the same as not voting.
Maybe in your mind there's some grand gesture. Perhaps the high horse belongs to you???
The truth is, nobody cares about your spoiled ballot because it's meaningless to everyone but you. It literally benefits no one but the garbage man.
What has any of this to do with fearing your neighbours??? Except, fearing their stupidity?
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u/KamBC Apr 17 '26
Your tongue probably does a good Trudeau impression with all the boot polish on it.
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u/Jaded-Juggernaut-244 Apr 17 '26
🤣 Good one!!
When you run out of stupid shit to say, just revert to insults!!
Me, I try to weave my insults in along the way. Good luck to you. I look forward to seeing your spoiled ballot in the trash next election. Just remember its your fault when they come for the guns okay? That's the whole point here. You're the guy that refuses to do anything about it...right? We good? Yeah, you're the guy. Be sure to tell all your buddies that own guns you did nothing for them okay? Okay then.
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u/Nautaloid Black Powder Enjoyer Apr 16 '26
All our politicians are whack jobs, look at the nonsense the BC NDP has been doing. Voting just means we decide which flavor of fucked over we get until the next election.
It's a really worrying sign for the future of our country that our politics are in such a sorry state right now.
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u/HappyCan7250 Jun 19 '26
Old post, but heard today Cpbc polling for a sweeping win whenever the election comes. 60 some odd seats and 30 something for NDP IIRC. 47% polling for CPBC, 35 or 36% for NDP.
Honestly, the fact ANYONE still supports Eby is hard to understand. He's an idiot who doesn't even have the confidence of his own party anymore but refuses to call an election. His party called his bluff on a confidence vote a while ago and he backed down, knowing it would make his government fall.
I pray we get an election before our next scheduled one. Eby is a delusional jackass.
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u/Davor_Penguin Apr 16 '26
If only the rest of their stances, on more pressing issues, were worth voting for.
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u/CalibreMag Apr 16 '26
Like what? (Legit curious)
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u/Davor_Penguin Apr 16 '26
All the same anti-climate change stuff, and a few others linked below:
Anti LGBTQ+ and Indigenous rhetoric. https://pressprogress.ca/bc-conservative-leadership-culture-war/
Various other issues amongst the party https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026/04/14/Scandals-Divisions-BC-Conservative-Leadership-Race/
I hate how other parties handle guns, but unfortunately they don't make my list of most important issues.
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u/ecclectic Apr 16 '26
Unfortunately, I'm not a single issue voter, and the BCCP is still a fucking garbage fire.
I don't like the federal shenanigans around firearms, but I'm not willing to walk hand-in-hand down the road with this circus of clowns over it. If they can get their shit together and stop cow-towing to the religious bullshit and keep their noses out of people bedrooms, maybe.
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u/Jaded-Juggernaut-244 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Should probably vote NDP then, definitely gonna be better with them in power. At least we'll be okay til the money runs out, right?
Edit: Downvote away...make sure everyone knows how unpopular common sense has become.
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u/Ilikechainsaws09 Apr 16 '26
We are never going to vote our way out of this. When people make peacefully change impossible....
Edit: grammar
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u/sushixp bc Apr 16 '26
It could help if they implement a Saskatchewan style “store your prohibited firearms for the benefit of the province under Section 117.08 of the Criminal Code”. At least you can keep them until a conservative federal government eventually gets elected.