The two young women who could put an unlikely face on B.C. Conservatives' new government - National Post

B.C. Conservative MLAs Claire Rattée, left, and Á'a:líya Warbus. Photo by Conservative Party of B.C.Article contentWhen B.C. premier-designate Lorne Doerksen considers potential cabinet members in the days ahead, there’s a good chance he will look at two notably tattooed young women with unique lived experience who would put an unexpected face on the government’s conservative policies.

Claire Rattée, a 34-year-old tattoo shop owner and one-time Kitimat city councillor, is a former addict who believes the compassionate approach is to push addicts into treatment.

Á’a:líya Warbus, an Indigenous film-maker and artist in her early 40s, is a proud member of the Stó:lō Nation who is very skeptical of the ousted NDP’s UNDRIP legislation that has created immense uncertainty in the province.

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Here’s a brief snapshot of the two re-elected MLAs and how they are likely to figure into the new majority Conservative government elected in B.C. on Saturday night and poised to undo years of NDP-created issues throughout the province.

Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson at his party’s election party at Rocky Mountaineer Station in Vancouver. Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNGArticle contentWho is Claire Rattée, MLA for Skeena?Article contentBorn in Delta in 1991, Rattée has been open about struggling with addiction to drugs and living on the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in her late teens.

“I know what it feels like to be cold, hungry and exhausted, and still have drugs matter more than anything else,” the self-described recovering addict wrote on X earlier this month.

She moved to Kitimat and began rebuilding her life in 2011, establishing her own tattoo studio, Arcane Arts Inc. — still operated by co-founder spouse Colton — before entering municipal politics in 2014 at 21 and going on to serve a four-year term.

Rattée pivoted to federal politics in 2019, but failed to win the Skeena—Bulkley Valley seat for the Conservative Party of Canada. She won the provincial Skeena riding in 2024 for former B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad, who quickly appointed her as the party’s shadow cabinet critic for mental health and addictions.