Darrell Jones, the former Save-On-Foods president known to British Columbians from his “Darrell’s Deals” grocery ads, launched a bid Tuesday for the leadership of the Conservative Party of B.C., saying the province stands at a “crossroads” and pledging to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.
From the stock room to the board room
Jones announced his candidacy in Surrey, in front of about 100 supporters, with his wife and son on stage beside him. Raised in Cranbrook, he has lived in Surrey for more than 30 years and spent his career at the Pattison Food Group, where he served as president for more than 13 years before stepping down. His pitch leaned on that biography: a leader who went from the “stock room to the board room” and knows how to deliver results.
“I have travelled the province so many times… I understand the heartbeat of our community,” he said at the launch.
Jones said last month, as he weighed a run, that he would apply lessons learned from his former boss, B.C. billionaire Jimmy Pattison, to the political world.
A crowded field
The leadership race was triggered by John Rustad’s departure, and Jones joins a crowded field. Six other candidates had already declared, including Conservative MLAs Peter Milobar and Sheldon Clare, entrepreneur Yuri Fulmer, political commentator Caroline Elliott, former BC Liberal minister Iain Black and Rossland contractor Warren Hamm.
The pitch: costs, safety, property rights
Jones argued that Premier David Eby’s NDP has “squandered” B.C. with taxes, deficits and policies “that prioritize ideologies over results.”
At the top of his list is the cost of living. “It’s not just housing, but it’s the pricing of everything from gas to coffee,” he said. He pointed to public safety, citing random assaults and shootings, and called for more effective justice and public safety measures.
His most specific pledge concerns property rights. Jones said he plans to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act — DRIPA, the 2019 law that aligns B.C. legislation with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — arguing that uncertainty around land and property rights is a significant concern for economic stability across the province. The pledge puts him in step with a party that has made DRIPA repeal a defining position, and in direct conflict with First Nations leaders who say the law should be strengthened, not scrapped.
An outsider’s lane
Jones’s candidacy was a test of whether a business celebrity could jump the queue in a party rebuilding after Rustad’s turbulent tenure. The Conservatives surged to official Opposition status in the 2024 provincial election, then spent much of 2025 fighting publicly over Rustad’s leadership before he resigned in December. The new leader inherits a large caucus, a fundraising machine still under construction, and the task of holding together rural resource voters, suburban homeowners and social conservatives in one tent.
Jones argued his years setting prices in grocery aisles gave him a ground-level read on the affordability crisis that politicians miss. His campaign put particular weight on the cost of running government itself, promising to shrink it, and on safer streets, where he said daily shootings and random assaults have become routine in parts of Metro Vancouver.
How it ended
Jones’s run lasted two months. On March 28, he withdrew from the race and endorsed Caroline Elliott, saying the party needed to come together to defeat the NDP. “We’re aligned on key priorities: working with small businesses and industry, reducing the cost of government, and tackling the economic challenges hitting young people hardest,” he wrote in announcing his endorsement. Fellow candidate Harman Bhangu had withdrawn days earlier, on March 16, also backing Elliott, while polling at the time showed Peter Milobar as the clear front-runner.
