Former B.C. MLA Mike de Jong ousted from federal Conservative nomination race

Then-B. C. Finance Minister Michael de Jong speaks to media after being sworn-in following a ceremony at Legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Thursday, June 8, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

Former B.C. finance minister Mike de Jong says he’s been told by the Conservative Party of Canada that he is no longer in the running to be a candidate for the party in the next federal election.

He says he found it “mystifying” that the party won’t allow him to contest the nomination in the riding of Abbotsford-South Langley after campaigning for the spot for almost a year.

The former long-serving MLA says he received a “three line message” from the party telling him his application to be in the nomination race had been denied.

De Jong says he was both “surprised” and “disappointed” and felt sorry for the volunteers who had helped him try to clinch the nomination.

He says he was puzzled that the party had deemed him “unworthy” or “unqualified” to run for the party in a community he’d served provincially for three decades.

De Jong says the nomination application process was “comprehensive” and he says he’s not “prone to speculate” about what the problem with his potential candidacy the party may have, but it “sounds like someone didn’t like me.”

This report by Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2025.