Three weeks from election day, no NDP candidate in place to take on BC Conservative incumbent in Chilliwack North: B.C. Votes 2026

Former MLA Kelli Paddon is running against incumbent A’aliya Warbus in Chilliwack-Cultus Lake, but last-minute vetting nixes planned New Democrat to face Heather Maahs 

October 2, 2026

For a minute, it looked like provincial election voters would recognize all four names of the candidates from the two major parties in the two Chilliwack electoral districts in the October election called by Premier David Eby.

But well-known local Métis leader, businessman and former federal Liberal candidate Louis De Jaeger who was the presumed choice was not chosen as the candidate for Chilliwack North during the final stages of the vetting process. In a post on social media Thursday (Oct. 1, 2026), De Jaeger said he has responsibilities with Métis Nation British Columbia that he has to honour, suggesting those could not be maintained while being an elected member of the provincial legislature.

Incumbent BC Conservatives Á’a:líya Warbus for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake and Heather Maahs for Chilliwack North will both be running for re-election, despite Warbus briefly fleeing the party along with several others in early September only to return when Kerry Lynne Findlay stepped down as party leader.

Former NDP MLA for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake Kelli Paddon announced she is running again in the riding. Her name was listed on the NDP’s list of candidates in the Oct. 24 election as of Sept. 29. Paddon was MLA for the riding from October 2020 succeeding Laurie Throness until the 2024 election won by Warbus.

With the last minute vetting of De Jaeger throwing a spanner in the works, as of this publication on Oct. 2, the NDP had not named a candidate for Chilliwack North. In fact, despite this election being called by NDP party leader David Eby for Oct. 24, three weeks from now, the NDP have just 52 candidates listed on their website while the BC Conservatives have candidates in place in all 93 ridings. CentreBC and the Green Party of BC each have 22 candidates ready to go while OneBC has 17.

As for other candidates locally, so far the only one for certain is Dan Grice who is running in Chilliwack North for CentreBC. Grice ran as an independent in 2024 finishing fourth with 2.3 per cent of the vote behind Green Party's Tim Cooper with 5.5 per cent, the late Dan Coulter with 37.7 per cent, the seat won by Heather Maahs with 54.6 per cent.

Incidentally, the race in Chilliwack-Cultus Lake was much closer with Warbus receiving 13,656 votes or 54.6 per cent to Paddon's 11,366 votes or 45.4 per cent.

Who’s who in the zoo

Politics in B.C. has been incredibly confusing even for those paying attention over the last three years.

For a quarter century, the province has been governed by the NDP or the BC Liberals, which newcomers may or may not know were not particularly liberal but were a big tent party including federal Liberals and Conservatives and old Socreds. 

The BC Conservatives existed on paper but prior to 2024, hadn’t elected an MLA this century. The BC Green Party had two MLAs in the legislature when the election was called.

Things started to change in 2022.

2022

• John Horgan steps down as NDP leader for health reasons and is replaced by David Eby. 
• Kevin Falcon became the new leader of the BC Liberals promising to rebrand. 
• BC Liberal John Rustad is booted out of the party for posting climate change misinformation to sit as an independent.

2023

• February – Rustad joins the BC Conservatives giving them their first MLA in, well, forever.
• April – The BC Liberals officially become BC United. 
• August – Bruce Banman leaves BC United to join the BC Conservatives giving them two MLAs and official party status.

2024 

• Spring and into summer – Lorne Doerksen, Elenore Sturko, Teresa Wat and other BC United MLAs cross the floor to join the BC Conservatives.
• August 28 – With an election looming, Falcon announces BC United will run no candidates in an effort to not split the vote against the NDP.
• October 19 – BC Conservatives win 44 seats out of 93 becoming official opposition. The NDP enter an agreement with the Greens to form government.

2025 

• March – Elinore Sturko leaves the BC Conservatives to create Centre BC out of the bones of BC United/BC Liberals.
• September – Residential school deniers Dallas Brodie and Tara Armstrong are pushed out of the BC Conservatives and form OneBC. Armstrong doesn’t last long and OneBC remains a party of one.
• October – BC Conservative MLAs wanted Rustad to resign, he wouldn’t, but by December he is ousted.

2026

• May 30 - BC Conservatives hold a leadership race. Caroline Elliott is edged out by Kerry Lynne Findlay, leading to much gnashing of teeth internally as Elliott was a strong conservative while Findlay a bit of an extremist.
• Summer – One by one, BC Conservatives are evicted or flee caucus stating they will form their own party. 
• September – Most of those who fled joined Sturko at Centre BC.
• September 20 – Eby calls an election for October 24. Almost immediately, most of the BC Conservatives that fled to Centre BC, return to the BC Conservatives while fellow residential school denialist (and Findlay’s husband) Brent Chapman leaves the BC Conservatives to join Dallas Brodie at OneBC.
• October 2, 2026 – The BC Conservatives had 93 candidates in place. NDP has 52, CentreBC 22, BC Greens 22, and OneBC has 17, all according to their party websites.

A video explainer of the above

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Paul J. Henderson
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