It was a year of rising stars and supernovas in B.C. politics.

For every Á'a:líya Warbus you had a John Rustad. One is beginning to shine brightly as Opposition house leader, the other imploded into a super massive black hole as leader.

Warbus proved in 2025 she’s the future of the BC Conservatives, a whip-smart Indigenous matriarch of a new generation of opposition critics, as she helped navigate caucus through asteroid fields this year.

Rustad, meanwhile, went from having almost as many MLAs as the governing New Democrats in January, to getting ejected out the shuttle bay door by his own caucus and party in December.

Like the mighty tardigrade, however, he survived much longer than anyone expected—including after botched allegations of blackmail, publicly questioning a female MLA’s mental health, and stumbling into a fake-voter scandal during his own leadership review.

Still, at least those two politicians are household names.

Which is a tough thing to accomplish in B.C. politics these days, when more than half the 93 MLAs are first-term red-shirt ensigns you still struggle to identify even when their names are read aloud on the Hansard feed. Hello David Williams and Paul Choi (pro tip: you can tell them apart by Williams’ magnificent moustache and Choi’s magnificent cheekbones.)

Speaking of cheekbones, if you were on the wrong side of Niki Sharma in 2025, you probably got them smashed by her regulation Starfleet boots. The attorney general and deputy premier twice convinced Ottawa to strengthen the criminal code bail rules,........

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