VANCOUVER — A 39-year-old councillor from Fort St. John, B.C., is the new leader of the BC Conservative Party.
Trevor Bolin says it has been a rocky road for the party since 2016, when Dan Brooks was ejected as leader.
After some bitter infighting, Bolin says the party is going back to grassroots politics and will be rolling out platforms that will benefit British Columbians.
He's already promising the party would scrap the carbon tax and will work with municipalities to better tackle climate change, while opening the province's door to private insurers and "long overdue" ride-hailing services.
The BC Conservative Party ran 10 candidates in the 2017 general elections but won no seats with just 0.53 per cent of the vote.
A BC Conservative Party member hasn't won a seat in the legislature since 1986, although former Liberal Abbotsford South MLA John van Dongen briefly sat as a Conservative in 2012.
Brooks said in 2016 that he was tossed out as leader on a technicality when the party's board had determined a quorum was not reached during the leadership vote.
Bolin say the party took its time to rebuild, and as the new leader, he'll start by connecting with potential voters across the province.
"Part of what we've done is ensure that we've taken the time to rebuild the party before we started to rebuild the brand. Instead of just jumping into B.C. politics, it became about the party, it became about the platforms that we're going to be rolling out shortly that are going to benefit British Columbians," he said Monday.
"Being the leader, it's back to basics, it's back to grassroots. It's meeting with people, it's meeting in communities. It's talking to hardworking British Columbians every day."