MLA wants to scrap B.C.'s Human Rights Code. Some constituents want her gone instead

A B.C. legislator who has sought to scrap the province's Human Rights Code and ban land acknowledgments, and has blamed the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting on "transgender ideology," is facing a recall campaign from constituents who say she has left them without "coherent" representation.

Tara Armstrong has also been accused of spreading hate by the NDP government and is facing calls to resign from 17 Pride societies, but she said she "knows very well what is important" to her constituents and would continue to represent them.

"I'm going to keep doing all the things I said I would do as MLA, and that includes the issues that I bring up," she said in the hallways of the legislature on Thursday.

The legislator for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream told reporters she was not going to be "intimidated" by who she described as activists who had hijacked the rights code.

"It no longer represents every single British Columbian, and we have to come back to the basics of that and revise that, so that we actually do have the opportunity to represent everybody again," she said.

Armstrong was elected as a B.C. Conservative in October 2024, founded the OneBC party with fellow MLA Dallas Brodie eight months later, then split from Brodie and OneBC in December.

Now sitting as an Independent, Armstrong unsuccessfully tabled a bill last month to repeal B.C.'s Human Rights Code, which protects against discrimination based on sex, gender, race and disability among other categories.

That was in response to a $750,000 fine imposed by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal against former school trustee Barry Neufeld, in a finding that he violated the code by publishing hate speech against LGBTQ+ people. 

It is Armstrong's shifting political allegiances and her legislative agenda that have inspired the recall campaign, said one of its co-chairs.

"When she was elected, she was elected as a B.C. Conservative," Wilbur Turner said. "She platformed on affordability, health care, supporting seniors and people with disabilities … and when she got elected, she went on a totally different road."

Turner said a lot of Conservative voters became upset with her, when she and fellow MLA Jordan Kealy left the party in solidarity with Brodie, who had been kicked out by the B.C. Conservatives for remarks about residential schools.

"A lot of folks who didn't vote for her are upset because of her ideological theatrics, which is basically what she's doing in the legislature, especially folks that I represent and advocate for in the queer community," Turner said. 

The Recall Tara Armstrong campaign says the riding is without "consistent representation or a coherent political voice" because Armstrong has introduced "bill after bill" that have nothing to do with the issues she campaigned on, he said.

"So, it seems like she has pretty much abandoned her constituents, and she is just focusing on what her personal agenda is," Turner said.

On Thursday, Armstrong, Brodie and fellow Independent Kealy were the only votes against a motion by the NDP asking the legislature to "affirm its unequivocal support" for the rights code and the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

In social media remarks about last month's Tumbler Ridge shootings, which saw eight victims killed before shooter Jesse Van Rootselaar took her own life, Armstrong said "there is an epidemic of transgender violence" spreading across the West, and that "transgender ideology is radicalizing youth, and unlocking violent impulses." 

After she made similar comments in the legislature, B.C.'s Education Minister Lisa Beare said the government would "stand against this kind of hate." 

Premier David Eby has supported calls for Armstrong's recall. 

The campaign's website says a petition application will be filed on April 20. If it's approved by Elections BC, organizers would have 60 days to collect the necessary 18,000-plus signatures from eligible voters in the riding.

Elections BC says a recall petition must be signed by more than 40 per cent of the voters who were registered to cast a ballot in the riding in the last election. 

If it's successful, the legislature member would be removed from office and a byelection would eventually be held.

"Our strategy is to raise money for mail-drops, and door-knockers," Turner said, adding that the campaign has drawn support from B.C. Conservatives, New Democrats, B.C. Greens and non-voters. 

"We have got already a volunteer team of over 100 people, and we have got locations already being offered for signing locations," he said. "We have got over 50 people offering to be canvassers so far, and we haven't even got a recall application in yet." 

None of the 31 previous recall campaigns since 1997 have succeeded, but Turner said the "odds are good" because of the "multiple reasons" for people to be upset with Armstrong. 

The campaign is also being co-chaired by Cheryl McNevin Baron, who organized the collection of signatures for the campaign that resulted in the scrapping of the harmonized sales tax in 2011.

"I believe Tara Armstrong has demonstrated the worst of the worst of politicians in terms of what she is platforming, how she has abandoned her constituents," Turner said.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito