BC Conservative Party leader John Cummins may be facing trouble from within.
Party director John Crocock denies there was an effort made last weekend at a board meeting to oust Cummins.
"Well no. I mean, we are always always trying to improve ourselves and things like that and there is always different things. I mean, people can try to say what they want or whatever, but we are the Conservatives. We are trying to improve ourselves. We are trying to, you know ... We have to make sure we have our leadership review every year."
Crocock says, rather, the push was to review his leadership as per party bylaws.
"No, no, not at all. We are just having a leadership review. In our bylaws, we have to have a leadership review. Right now, they might change, but right now every year we have a leadership review. It builds up moral, people get asked, 'Do you support the leader?' ... That is another good reason to go to the AGM."
He was asked if he would support Cummins in a leadership review.
"Well that's, that's a silent ballot. Either way, I am not... I am not... you know... Hey, that was a good one (laughter). As I said, it's... uhhh, that is a month from now and we will see what we can do."
The leadership review will be held at the party's annual general meeting in Langley Sept 22.
For his part, Cummins says he doesn't feel threatened.
"We are looking forward to it and fully support the review. t is required by the existing constitution and, you know, I think it is a great idea. It holds everybody to account and it makes the membership feel they have a say in the way things are run."
He says while some within the party might be unhappy, most support him.
"Most of the party is quite supportive. When I took the party over, if you look at the last provincial election, the party got two percent of the vote. We are consistently above 20 percent, which was our first target. We are set to move even higher this fall. I would say that the vast majority of the party feels the same."
Cummins is also playing down the departure of Hamish Marshall: "He has got two new startup companies that he is operating and travels quite frequently and he was unable to continue as campaign director."
Tory MLA John van Dongen declined to comment on internal party matters.