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# BC Turned Blue | Can They Govern It?
- URL: https://www.craftpolitics.fm/episodes/bc-turned-blue-can-they-govern-it/
- Published: 2026-10-29T00:57:45.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-29T00:57:45.000Z
- Author: Joseph Lavoie
- Tags: Todd Stone, Former BC Liberal Cabinet Minister, #episode, #interview, #ai-4

Five weeks ago, Sean Speer was on the show to help us pick through what was left of the B.C. Conservatives after Kerry-Lynne Findlay quit. Two days later, David Eby called an election two years early. On Saturday the Conservatives won 63 of 93 seats, their first win in their own right since 1928, under an interim leader who has never sat in cabinet.

So we brought in Todd Stone, who has. Todd was B.C.'s transportation minister under Christy Clark and Kevin Falcon's House Leader, with Lorne Doerkson as his caucus chair. He now runs the Association for Mineral Exploration, which has a lot riding on what this government does next.

What we got into:

- **A Cinderella story with a pop-up shop.** Todd compares the Conservative campaign to a Christmas kiosk at the mall: thirty days to find a leader, a platform, the money, and the inventory, then sell.
- **"You might as well call it brand X."** Social Credit, B.C. Liberal, B.C. Conservative. Todd on the coalition that keeps changing its name, and what always holds it together.
- **Who is Lorne Doerkson?** Rodeo MC, dunk-tank volunteer, and the MLA who grabbed a hose and went behind the fire lines. Todd shares what Doerkson told him the night before the vote.
- **A cabinet with no cabinet experience.** By Todd's count, nobody in the incoming government has been a minister. He names his pick for finance, and the MLA he thinks could lead the party one day.
- **The quarter-million who stayed home.** The NDP vote collapsed, but it didn't go anywhere. Todd's warning to his own side about reading too much into the mandate.
- **DRIPA, carefully.** Todd voted for it in 2019\. What he was told at the time, and how he'd handle a repeal without losing the first year to it.

Also discussed: the B.C. Conservatives inviting Andrew to their caucus retreat ("desperation, capital D"), why voters didn't need a premier to fight Trump when they'd already hired Mark Carney, John Horgan as "Premier Dad," Andy Burnham's breathing-space budget, and Andrew noticing we'd assembled a balanced panel of three conservatives.

Todd's call: the books are worse than anyone has been told. We'll have him back after the first budget to check. His predictions, he says, are "worth what you paid for them."

Find Todd at the Association for Mineral Exploration (ame.ca) and on X at @toddstonebc.

00:00 Welcome and the number — 1928, the last Conservative win in BC  
01:31 Introducing Todd Stone — Former BC Liberal minister and political veteran  
02:35 The Cinderella story — From train wreck to triumph in 30 days  
05:50 David Eby's cynical gamble — Why the early election backfired  
09:03 The boogeyman vanished — How Lorne Doerkson changed everything  
12:26 The coalition comes together — Federal Liberals and Conservatives unite  
14:58 Who is Lorne Doerkson? — The rodeo rider premier nobody expected  
16:51 The embarrassment of riches — Building a cabinet from scratch  
20:26 The DRIPA dilemma — Repealing indigenous rights legislation  
22:57 The mandate reality check — 250,000 missing NDP voters  
28:12 Economic empowerment over conflict — The path forward on reconciliation  
47:57 Day one priorities — Healthcare, public safety, and growing the economy  
54:32 Not the BC Liberals 2.0 — Why this government will be different  
55:26 Closing reflections