VICTORIA – The B-C Conservatives will announce their new leader on Saturday in Vancouver six months after John Rustad was chased out of office, and two analysts say the final outcome will have long-term consequences for the party’s direction.

Former B.C. Liberal cabinet Iain Black, commentator Caroline Elliott, former M-P Kerry-Lynne Findlay, current M-L-A Peter Milobar and entrepreneur Yuri Fulmer are the final candidates in a race that dates back to December, when Rustad resigned following ideological squabbles and defections. 

The new leader will take the party’s helm as the N-D-P government of Premier David Eby struggles in the polls, and Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, says both parties find themselves at crossroads.

She says Saturday’s vote could mark the start of the New Democrat’s decline, or represent a lost opportunity for the Conservatives.

David Black, who teaches at Royal Roads University, says the new leader must satisfy the party’s more populist base, while remaining electable for moderate, right-of-centre voters.

The race saw several sharp exchanges between candidates and multiple controversies, but out-going interim leader Trevor Halford says such clashes are normal, and most British Columbians do not care about ideological labels.