7 BC United MLAs (2024)

What the record says

In 2024, in British Columbia, the record groups six changes of affiliation, each from BC United to the Conservative Party of British Columbia. Six people are named individually, and the record marks the resolution of this group as partial. A partial resolution means the named participants are not established as the whole group. The event itself is dated only to the year, while the participant rows carry dates from May 31, 2024 to September 3, 2024. No source is cited for this event record: it is a legacy lead, kept from an earlier phase of the project because it points at something real, not because anyone has checked it. These entries record the affiliations and their dates. They do not record why the changes were made, and nothing here should be read as a statement of motive. This paragraph was assembled by machine from the rows named in it, and is pending review.

Participants

1. Lorne Doerkson

   CTF-EP-GRP-20240531-97877DD6-01

   BC United→ToConservative Party of British ColumbiaTo another partyWhere the seat went: The seat was carried to another partyBoth sides of the change are parties, and they are different parties. The member sat with one caucus and then sat with another, without the seat being returned to voters in between.What you may rely onThat a party gained a seat it did not win. It says nothing about why: the record separates where a member went from whether they chose to go.How it countsThe direction the floor-crossing total is drawn from, but not the total itself. A small number of legs whose labels read party-to-a-different-party are ruled election-time relabelling, and count toward nothing.

   Riding

   not recorded

   Effective

   May 31, 2024

   Kind of transition

   Changed party affiliation

   Voluntary

   Not recorded

   Direction

   Not recorded

   Appointment

   Not applicable

2. Elenore Sturko

   CTF-EP-GRP-20240531-BB8013BF-02

   BC United→ToConservative Party of British ColumbiaTo another partyWhere the seat went: The seat was carried to another partyBoth sides of the change are parties, and they are different parties. The member sat with one caucus and then sat with another, without the seat being returned to voters in between.What you may rely onThat a party gained a seat it did not win. It says nothing about why: the record separates where a member went from whether they chose to go.How it countsThe direction the floor-crossing total is drawn from, but not the total itself. A small number of legs whose labels read party-to-a-different-party are ruled election-time relabelling, and count toward nothing.

   Riding

   not recorded

   Effective

   June 3, 2024

   Kind of transition

   Changed party affiliation

   Voluntary

   Not recorded

   Direction

   Not recorded

   Appointment

   Not applicable

3. Teresa Wat

   CTF-EP-GRP-20240531-8168E7AC-03

   BC United→ToConservative Party of British ColumbiaTo another partyWhere the seat went: The seat was carried to another partyBoth sides of the change are parties, and they are different parties. The member sat with one caucus and then sat with another, without the seat being returned to voters in between.What you may rely onThat a party gained a seat it did not win. It says nothing about why: the record separates where a member went from whether they chose to go.How it countsThe direction the floor-crossing total is drawn from, but not the total itself. A small number of legs whose labels read party-to-a-different-party are ruled election-time relabelling, and count toward nothing.

   Riding

   not recorded

   Effective

   July 30, 2024

   Kind of transition

   Changed party affiliation

   Voluntary

   Not recorded

   Direction

   Not recorded

   Appointment

   Not applicable

4. Ian Paton

   CTF-EP-GRP-20240531-D40DEADA-04

   BC United→ToConservative Party of British ColumbiaTo another partyWhere the seat went: The seat was carried to another partyBoth sides of the change are parties, and they are different parties. The member sat with one caucus and then sat with another, without the seat being returned to voters in between.What you may rely onThat a party gained a seat it did not win. It says nothing about why: the record separates where a member went from whether they chose to go.How it countsThe direction the floor-crossing total is drawn from, but not the total itself. A small number of legs whose labels read party-to-a-different-party are ruled election-time relabelling, and count toward nothing.

   Riding

   not recorded

   Effective

   September 3, 2024

   Kind of transition

   Changed party affiliation

   Voluntary

   Not recorded

   Direction

   Not recorded

   Appointment

   Not applicable

5. Peter Milobar

   CTF-EP-GRP-20240531-CD9753E4-05

   BC United→ToConservative Party of British ColumbiaTo another partyWhere the seat went: The seat was carried to another partyBoth sides of the change are parties, and they are different parties. The member sat with one caucus and then sat with another, without the seat being returned to voters in between.What you may rely onThat a party gained a seat it did not win. It says nothing about why: the record separates where a member went from whether they chose to go.How it countsThe direction the floor-crossing total is drawn from, but not the total itself. A small number of legs whose labels read party-to-a-different-party are ruled election-time relabelling, and count toward nothing.

   Riding

   not recorded

   Effective

   September 3, 2024

   Kind of transition

   Changed party affiliation

   Voluntary

   Not recorded

   Direction

   Not recorded

   Appointment

   Not applicable

6. Trevor Halford

   CTF-EP-GRP-20240531-D4A65360-06

   BC United→ToConservative Party of British ColumbiaTo another partyWhere the seat went: The seat was carried to another partyBoth sides of the change are parties, and they are different parties. The member sat with one caucus and then sat with another, without the seat being returned to voters in between.What you may rely onThat a party gained a seat it did not win. It says nothing about why: the record separates where a member went from whether they chose to go.How it countsThe direction the floor-crossing total is drawn from, but not the total itself. A small number of legs whose labels read party-to-a-different-party are ruled election-time relabelling, and count toward nothing.

   Riding

   not recorded

   Effective

   September 3, 2024

   Kind of transition

   Changed party affiliation

   Voluntary

   Not recorded

   Direction

   Not recorded

   Appointment

   Not applicable

Claims and the sources cited for them

Every statement this record makes is stored as a separate claim with its own review state and its own citations. A claim with no citation is shown as such rather than omitted.

1. 7 BC United MLAs changed affiliation from BC United to BC Conservative in 2024.

   Pending review

   Field:

   affiliation_change

   Confidence:

   Not assessed

   Signed by:

   Not signed by a named contributor

   • Rustad welcomes Ian Paton, Peter Milobar and Trevor Halford to BC Conservative Party

     Indo-Canadian Voice · September 3, 2024 · record participant rows of 7-bc-united-mlas-2024 already cited to this source: 3 of 6 recorded participants — Ian Paton; Peter Milobar; Trevor Halford · EN

     This citation carries the evidence already attached to this event's participant rows up to the event claim. The source evidences 3 of the 6 participant rows recorded for this event, and the event's own participant count is recorded as an estimate of 7, so the source does not establish the total the claim states.

     Archived copy — September 1, 2026

     CTF-S-GRP-VOICE-BCTRIO-2024 · Reliability tier: secondary reliable · Rights: link only · Accessed: September 1, 2026

   • BC United MLA defects to BC Conservatives just months before provincial election

     Global News · Simon Little · May 31, 2024 · record participant rows of 7-bc-united-mlas-2024 already cited to this source: 1 of 6 recorded participants — Lorne Doerkson · EN

     This citation carries the evidence already attached to this event's participant rows up to the event claim. The source evidences 1 of the 6 participant rows recorded for this event, and the event's own participant count is recorded as an estimate of 7, so the source does not establish the total the claim states.

     Archived copy — September 1, 2026

     CTF-S-GRP-GLOBAL-DOERKSON-2024 · Reliability tier: secondary reliable · Rights: link only · Accessed: September 1, 2026

   • Defecting B.C. United MLAs put aside past Conservative criticism

     CBC News · Akshay Kulkarni · June 4, 2024 · record participant rows of 7-bc-united-mlas-2024 already cited to this source: 1 of 6 recorded participants — Elenore Sturko · EN

     This citation carries the evidence already attached to this event's participant rows up to the event claim. The source evidences 1 of the 6 participant rows recorded for this event, and the event's own participant count is recorded as an estimate of 7, so the source does not establish the total the claim states.

     Archived copy — September 1, 2026

     CTF-S-GRP-CBC-BCDEFECT-2024 · Reliability tier: secondary reliable · Rights: link only · Accessed: September 1, 2026

   • 'Political juggernaut': Another BC United MLA crosses the floor to Conservatives

     CKPG Today · Adam Berls · July 30, 2024 · record participant rows of 7-bc-united-mlas-2024 already cited to this source: 1 of 6 recorded participants — Teresa Wat · EN

     This citation carries the evidence already attached to this event's participant rows up to the event claim. The source evidences 1 of the 6 participant rows recorded for this event, and the event's own participant count is recorded as an estimate of 7, so the source does not establish the total the claim states.

     Archived copy — September 1, 2026

     CTF-S-GRP-CKPG-WAT-2024 · Reliability tier: secondary reliable · Rights: link only · Accessed: September 1, 2026

2. In 2024, in British Columbia, the record groups six changes of affiliation, each from BC United to the Conservative Party of British Columbia. Six people are named individually, and the record marks the resolution of this group as partial. A partial resolution means the named participants are not established as the whole group. The event itself is dated only to the year, while the participant rows carry dates from May 31, 2024 to September 3, 2024. On 2026-09-01, 4 citations were attached to this record's affiliation claim, drawn from 4 sources, and they are recorded as pending review. The editorial status of the record is unchanged: it remains a legacy lead, and no editor has yet stood behind it. These entries record the affiliations and their dates. They do not record why the changes were made, and nothing here should be read as a statement of motive. This paragraph was assembled by machine from the rows named in it, and is pending review.

   Pending review

   Field:

   summary

   Confidence:

   Low

   Signed by:

   Official-source deterministic verifier

   Assumptions: Machine-assembled from this database’s own rows and from no other source. The text restates, as sentences, the participant rows attached to this record: the affiliation recorded on either side of each change, the date at the precision that row carries, the jurisdiction and chamber, whether the change is filed under a group event, and whether the event record behind it carries a citation. No date is printed finer than the row’s date_precision, so a year-precision row yields a year and never a day. Both languages are composed from the same rows rather than translated from one another. No motive, benefit, causation or characterisation of a person appears, and none may be added under this claim.

   Counterarguments: Two limits, stated rather than glossed. First, the prose is only as sound as the rows beneath it: where a party link is wrong the wrong party name is printed, and where an event is a legacy lead the sentence repeats an unverified lead — saying so, but repeating it. Second, restating a thin record fluently can make it read as established; the pending status on this claim, and the sentence inside the text naming the evidence state, are the only things that say otherwise. Four label-to-party mappings were deliberately not printed, because the party row’s name did not exist on the date of the event; the underlying links were left untouched and are still visible on the record.

   No source is cited for this claim.

What happened afterwards

Recorded outcomes only. An absence here means nothing has been recorded, not that nothing happened, and no causal link to the affiliation change is asserted unless a source establishes one.

No outcome is recorded for anyone on this event.

Linked records

• component of Lorne Doerkson (2024)This event records part of the same real-world episode as the group lead 7-bc-united-mlas-2024. Both records describe the same people; participant totals that count them separately will double-count. Recorded so the overlap is explicit rather than hidden.
• component of Elenore Sturko (2024)This event records part of the same real-world episode as the group lead 7-bc-united-mlas-2024. Both records describe the same people; participant totals that count them separately will double-count. Recorded so the overlap is explicit rather than hidden.
• component of Teresa Wat (2024)This event records part of the same real-world episode as the group lead 7-bc-united-mlas-2024. Both records describe the same people; participant totals that count them separately will double-count. Recorded so the overlap is explicit rather than hidden.
• component of Ian Paton (2024)This event records part of the same real-world episode as the group lead 7-bc-united-mlas-2024. Both records describe the same people; participant totals that count them separately will double-count. Recorded so the overlap is explicit rather than hidden.
• component of Peter Milobar (2024)This event records part of the same real-world episode as the group lead 7-bc-united-mlas-2024. Both records describe the same people; participant totals that count them separately will double-count. Recorded so the overlap is explicit rather than hidden.
• component of Trevor Halford (2024)This event records part of the same real-world episode as the group lead 7-bc-united-mlas-2024. Both records describe the same people; participant totals that count them separately will double-count. Recorded so the overlap is explicit rather than hidden.

Machine-assisted proposals awaiting a human

A proposal listed here has changed nothing. It names exactly which steps a machine performed and waits for a person to accept or reject it.

• duplicate aggregate reconciliation pending

  Machine assistance: research entity matching and translation draft

  AI-assisted source discovery and entity matching identified a likely duplicate aggregate and drafted the bilingual private proposal. A human editor must open every source, verify the six event dates and identities, resolve the July 29/30 reporting boundary for Teresa Wat, and review all French wording. Promotion creates only pending relationships and pending event revisions; it does not withdraw or verify the aggregate.

Revision history

Every change to this record is appended here. Nothing is edited away.

1. r4 expanded

   Wrote summary_en and summary_fr, both of which were empty. The text is machine-assembled from this database’s own rows and from no other source: the 6 participant rows attached to this event, each with the affiliation recorded on either side, the date at the precision that row carries, the jurisdiction and chamber, and whether the event record behind it carries a citation (0/1). No date is printed finer than date_precision. No motive, benefit, causation or characterisation is asserted, in keeping with the published mandate of the automated validator that signs it. Both languages are composed from the same rows rather than translated from one another. The last sentence of the text says, in the text itself, that it was assembled by machine and is pending review, so the disclosure travels with the paragraph through the API and through a copied quotation. The text is recorded as claim CTF-CL-SUM-37F0CB84EDBB, kind project_analysis, assertion status pending_review. Nothing was copied or paraphrased from any encyclopaedia: the earlier removal of Wikipedia-derived prose from this project is not reversed by this change. Publication status and verification level are unchanged.

   September 1, 2026 · Official-source deterministic verifier

2. r3 expanded

   6 of an estimated 7 participants were named from cited sources and attached to this event; resolution status set to 'partial'. Six BC United MLAs crossed to the Conservative Party of British Columbia during 2024, on four separate dates. The seventh usually counted in the "7 BC United MLAs" total is Bruce Banman, who crossed in September 2023, not 2024; his crossing is already recorded separately as bruce-banman-2023. Recorded as 6 named of an estimated 7, with the shortfall explained rather than filled.

   September 1, 2026

3. r2 corrected

   Corrected the stored permanent URI. It pointed at /en/crossings/7-bc-united-mlas-2024, a path this site has never served, so the citation target returned HTTP 404. It now points at /crossings/7-bc-united-mlas-2024, the canonical record address. No fact, date, party, participant or source in this record was changed.

   September 1, 2026

4. r1 created

   Imported from the legacy archive as an unpublished research lead. Historical narrative, motive labels, and benefit scores were not treated as verified claims.

   July 31, 2026 · Crossing the Floor project maintainer