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B.C. Conservatives reinstate 'dissidents'

Burnaby woman receives apology and restored party membership

It’s been a long time coming, but the “dissidents” who led the charge against B.C. Conservative leader John Cummins have been reinstated in their party.

That means longtime Burnaby resident and Conservative activist Ariane Eckardt is back in the Conservative ranks after she received a hand-delivered apology officially reinstating her membership in the party.

“I’ve been vindicated. I knew we were doing the right thing, the man we were fighting was gone. The party obviously got rid of some other people that were doing a lot of damage to it. Hey, I was right,” Eckardt told the NOW.

Eckardt was kicked out of the party back in 2012 after she and two others – Allison Patton and John Crocock ­­– found themselves at the heart of an internal squabble over Cummins. The three were collecting signatures in support of a leadership review for Cummins, who responded by kicking them out of the party, even though Eckardt has a lifetime membership. Cummins eventually resigned, and the party, as Eckardt puts it, was decimated in the last election.

“He was not the person to support. He was mostly in it for himself,” Eckardt said of the former leader.

The trio sued but dropped the case when they were accepted back in the party. Small business owner Dan Brooks is the new leader.  

Eckardt, who is now the president of the Conservatives’ Burnaby North-Seymour constituency association,

Eckardt went on to help form a new provincial party, the B.C. Action Party, so her only problem now is she must decide which group to stay with since she can’t be a member of both at the same time.