VANCOUVER — Former B.C. finance minister Mike de Jong has been campaigning for nearly a year to clinch the Conservative Party of Canada nomination in the riding of Abbotsford-South Langley, but he's now been told he's not qualified to be a member of Parliament.
De Jong won eight terms in the B.C. legislature, serving as finance minister, attorney general and several other portfolios as a B.C. Liberal under Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark, and he said it was "mystifying" that the federal Conservatives deemed him "unworthy."
He said the party informed him via a "three-line message" that it wouldn't allow him to contest the nomination in the riding after his application to be in the nomination race had been denied.
De Jong said he was both "surprised" and "disappointed" and felt sorry for the volunteers who had helped him try to get the nomination.
"When candidates go into these campaigns, we are reliant on the hard work of volunteers," he said. "And in this case, it was a very lengthy campaign."
He said he was puzzled that the federal Conservative Party party had deemed him "unworthy" or "unqualified" to run in the community where he has served provincially for three decades.
"I wasn't seeking some kind of an appointment or special status. I understood it was a nomination and when you enter these races you can either win or lose," he said. "That I would be told at this stage that I was deemed unworthy or unqualified to even compete for the position was, candidly, a little hard to take."
De Jong said the nomination application process was "comprehensive" and he said he's not "prone to speculate" about what the problem with his candidacy may have been.
"It sounds like someone didn't like me," he said.
He said he endorsed Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when he was seeking the party's leadership, having avoided federal politics as a member of the B.C. Liberals, which included both federal Liberals and Conservatives in its ranks.
"At no point was I confronted or approached about anything that anyone was troubled by or wanted to explore," he said. "As a 30-year member of the legislative assembly, I've disclosed on a yearly basis everything about my financial circumstances. I don't have any secrets after 30 years in public life."
"So yeah, it's all a bit mystifying," he added.
Emails to two B.C. members of the Conservative Party of Canada's national council about de Jong's nomination bid were not immediately returned.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2025.
Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press
