A different kind of BC Conservative candidate

Á’a:líya Warbus wants a seat at the table. What she does if she gets there is still an open question.

Earlier this month, the BC Conservative Party announced its candidates in Chilliwack’s two ridings. Heather Maahs, a Chilliwack school board trustee who has opposed gender neutral washrooms, fits the mould of a candidate for a party whose leader has asked for SOGI educational msaterial to be pulled from schools. But Warbus—a staffer in the Stó:lō Xwexwilmexw Government, an artist, a university instructor, and the director of a film about a Stó:lō trans woman’s search for acceptance—very much does not.

In a system where governments rise and fall on party loyalty, parties rarely nominate candidates whose personal histories and beliefs seem like they might clash with those of their leader and caucus.

Indeed, Warbus doesn’t fit the mould of a provincial or federal candidate in any of Canada’s established parties, which have rarely looked to First Nations for candidates—even in a region like the Fraser Valley with dozens of experienced Stó:lō politicians and administrators.

Now Warbus is looking to blaze a new path and says she is happy for the Conservatives’ help. But if she ends up in the legislature, she may have to figure out how far she is willing to bend if and when her personal beliefs clash with those of her party.

Note: This is a piece of our election coverage. Warbus’s background and her involvement in projects that don’t align with statements by her party leaders make her a rare type of candidate and, thus, interesting to speak to and hear from. So while we don’t have time to interrogate every would-be candidate at this point we want to hear from her and consider what her candidacy means. At the same time, we’re aware it would be unfair and improper to subject one of the valley’s first female Indigenous provincial candidates to a grilling that other candidates won’t receive this early in the campaign. Statements by the Conservative Party of BC and its leader speak for themselves. So rather than a close interrogation of specific parts of Warbus’s personal and still-developing platform, this piece reflects a desire to explore the complexity of what it means to run for office and the challenges that candidates face in reconciling personal views with those of their party.

Becoming a candidate

Warbus is not a stranger to what it means to be in a politically prominent position in British Columbia.

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