Due to struggles with party integrity and autonomy for its elected officials, Abbotsford South’s MLA Bruce Banman left the BC United Party for opposing BC Conservative Party recently.

According to Banman, the BC United party has been forcing their party members to only vote a certain way to fit the party’s image and concerns.

“There are what's called ‘whipped votes’ where the party actually tells you how to vote,” Banman says. “I can understand there are party lines that are followed, but then there gets to be an excessive point that it becomes what is politically convenient or politically correct for the political winds of the day.”

Banman suggests that the whipped votes impede the authenticity of the individual ridings. That different ridings have different needs and representation than those in other places. Banman recalls a “humiliating” time when he was asked to leave a building for not voting in unison with the BC United Party. This breach among other personal issues led to Banman’s decision to leave the party which he has been a long term member of, and that his new party will not put him in the same position of questionable integrity.

“What the Conservative Party of British Columbia has said and promised is many more free votes and the ability to speak my mind in the legislature about concerns in my riding.”

Banman believes that these ideals of political philosophy between the two parties could cause voters but also those looking to be elected or re-elected to make a change in leadership for the future.

“I think British Columbians are looking for something different,” Banman says. “I am not the only one that isn't 100 per cent satisfied. I would say that people are now looking at their own integrity and their own options, and it would not surprise me if we see more [leave the BC United Party].”

Listen to the full interview with Bruce Banman on CIVL here: