MLA Brenan Day (Courtenay-Comox) has become the fifth MLA to quit the B.C. Conservative Party in the past week.

In a statement, Day said that he is stepping away, effective immediately, from the B.C. Conservative Party and will sit as an “Independent Conservative” in the Legislature.

He said: “I entered politics to serve the people of Coutenay-Comox and to help build a serious, principled, right-of-centre alternative to David Eby’s NDP government.

“That responsibility belongs to every person I represent, whether they voted for me or not. They deserve an MLA who conducts himself honourably, acts with integrity, and is prepared to stand by the values he was elected to carry to Victoria.

“The current direction of the Conservative Party of BC under Kerry-Lynne Findlay is no longer something I can support. More fundamentally, I have lost confidence in the judgment, conduct, and ethical standards of her leadership and those she has chosen to surround herself with.

“Public office demands integrity. I cannot ask others to meet that standard while remaining silent when I believe my own party’s leadership has fallen short of it. Nor can I reconcile doing so with the commitments I made to the people who sent me to Victoria.

“I will continue to fight, as I always have, for responsible government, fiscal discipline, individual freedom, strong public services, and an economy that rewards hard work and opportunity. I will continue to hold David Eby and the NDP, the most destructive government in British Columbia’s history, to account.

“My loyalty remains where it has always belonged: with the people that put their trust in me to serve with integrity.”