Another BC United MLA Defects to Rustad’s Conservatives

John Rustad’s Conservative party gained a third MLA today at the expense of BC United with Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson switching parties.

“I’m obviously excited about the prospects of what appears to be in my mind one of the largest grassroots movements of political history,” Doerkson said during the announcement at the B.C. legislature.

He made the announcement alongside BC Conservative Leader John Rustad.

“I’m very pleased that Lorne has made the decision to come over and join our party as part of our grassroots party building momentum for British Columbia,” Rustad said.

In recent public opinion surveys the Conservatives have been seeing support well ahead of BC United and closing on the governing NDP, support that has grown steadily over the last 17 months.

Doerkson said it was a tough decision to change parties and that he has a lot of respect for the BC United caucus he is leaving and its leader Kevin Falcon.

But constituents in Cariboo-Chilcotin were clear on what they wanted him to do, Doerkson said.

“Certainly people in Williams Lake and Cariboo-Chilcotin have made it very clear to me that they want a Conservative to represent [them] because I think they really feel as though that is the only alternate party to the NDP right now,” he said.

Doerkson said he shares concerns about the Conservatives and BC United splitting the vote and that he had been hopeful the two parties would reach a deal to collaborate. The parties held talks but last week announced they’d failed to reach an agreement.

“When that died I had to move on,” said Doerkson. “Once that came apart, and it’s clearly apart, I felt it necessary to do exactly as residents have made very clear to me to do and that’s move to the Conservative party.”

Doerkson was the BC United caucus chair and critic for water, land and resource stewardship and rural development, and emergency management and climate readiness.

By publication time nobody from BC United had made a statement on Doerkson’s departure.

The Conservatives gained a foothold in the legislature last year when Rustad, who BC United Leader Falcon booted from what was then the BC Liberal caucus over a dispute around climate change and party discipline, joined the Conservatives and became leader.

Last September Abbotsford South MLA Bruce Banman left BC United to join Rustad and the Conservatives.

Rustad said that he is having confidential conversations with other BC United MLAs, though Doerkson observed, “I don’t know that anyone else is coming over.”

Despite their momentum, the Conservatives have had some bumps. Earlier this week Damon Scrase stepped down as the party’s candidate in Courtenay-Comox following attention to social media posts he’d made, including one referring to some Pride parade participants as “degenerates.”

Scrase was at least the third of the party’s candidates to resign amid controversy over their past statements.

“With respect to candidates I know that we have had some challenges in the recent past and I think that John has dealt quite swiftly with those challenges,” Doerkson said. There will be mistakes, he added, but what matters is how they are dealt with.

Rustad said the party has “tightened up” its vetting process, which now includes both internal and external reviewers. They are looking at not only prospective candidates, he said, but also existing ones including himself in hopes of being prepared for any issues that might come up.

Asked about Doerkson joining the Conservatives, Premier David Eby said, “I see a group of people who are willing to sell out their core values in order to save their political skin.”

Eby criticized Rustad’s failure to clearly denounce some of the homophobic or extreme comments made by Conservative candidates in the past.

Whoever the NDP is running against, he said, his party will focus on what matters to British Columbians, including addressing the housing crisis and the cost of living.