Former BC United Donors Are Jumping to Rustad’s Conservatives

For many years Patrick Yearwood was a steady donor to BC United and its predecessor the BC Liberal Party.

The lawyer with an office in Surrey and a home in downtown Vancouver gave the centre-right party at least $1,200 every year since 2018. As recently as January, Elections BC records show, he sent BC United $1,225.

Then in April he made a different choice, contributing $1,000 to BC United’s upstart rival on the right, the Conservative Party of BC. The payment was for a dinner event and was refunded when he was unable to attend, he said, but he still supports the Conservatives.

“I suppose the reason I’m interested in the BC Conservatives is they have a chance of defeating the NDP, who I loathe,” Yearwood said on the phone.

He was particularly critical of the NDP government’s introduction of no-fault vehicle insurance through ICBC that “takes away the rights” of people who have been in accidents by limiting the amount of compensation available to them and making it difficult to pursue a case.

Yearwood, who as a lawyer has worked on such cases but never had them as a large part of his practice, said Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad’s pledge to allow people who have suffered “life-altering injuries” in accidents to seek “fair and reasonable compensation” through the courts is the right direction.

It’s also become clear the BC Conservatives are the best chance to defeat the NDP, despite the efforts of Kevin Falcon as leader of BC United, he said. “It’s too bad,” Yearwood said, “because I think he’s a very capable man, a very capable leader.”

High-profile donors include former MLAs

Yearwood’s support was part of a breakthrough fundraising quarter for the BC Conservatives this spring when the party raised $1.1 million. That was about half what the governing NDP brought in, but nearly double the total for BC United.

Analysis of data from Elections BC shows that 139 of the people who gave to the BC Conservatives between April and June — roughly 10 per cent of the party’s donors — have names that match those of donors in recent years to either BC United or the BC Liberals.

Donation records show the Conservatives have attracted support from at least four former BC Liberal MLAs: Sam Sullivan, Olga Ilich, Laurie Throness and Suzanne Anton.

Sullivan, a former Vancouver mayor and councillor who represented Vancouver-False Creek as a BC Liberal MLA for two terms, said, “I have personal relations with both sides and the best way I could deal with this is to give to both.”

It’s an imperfect solution, he said, but “how do you be loyal when your two friends are scrapping?”

Some of the other past Liberal supporters who have donated to the Conservatives include founding CEO of Encana Corp. Gwyn Morgan, real estate investor and Vancouver Canucks chairman Francesco Aquilini, political consultant Brad Zubyk and private investor Madison Group’s Sam Grippo, Peter Grippo and Dino Di Marco.

Leaving behind BC United

The movement of donors to the Conservatives is a snub for BC United and for Falcon, who over the past nine months has repeatedly cited his party’s superior ability to raise money as a reason he wasn’t worried about falling poll numbers.

Rustad, a former BC Liberal cabinet minister, became leader of the BC Conservatives a little more than a year ago after Falcon booted him from BC United over a dispute around climate change and party discipline.

He joined a party that was already quietly building, largely thanks to the energy of activist supporters of Aaron Gunn, who as a group moved over to the Conservatives after the BC Liberals blocked Gunn from competing for that party’s leadership.

Starting last October voter intention surveys began showing the Conservatives even with BC United, and recent polls have found them continuing to gain support and closing on the governing NDP.

As the Conservative support has grown, Rustad has been joined by former BC United MLAs — Abbotsford South MLA Bruce Banman, Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson, Surrey South MLA Elenore Sturko and Richmond North Centre MLA Teresa Wat.

Norman Stowe, a communications consultant with long involvement in BC United and the BC Liberals, was the president of the BC United constituency association in Surrey South. He moved to supporting the Conservatives at the same time as Sturko, the MLA for the riding.

“There’s an old saying in retail: Stop trying to sell things people don’t want to buy,” Stowe said. “I look at the Conservatives and I see the one party that has a chance.”

Stowe said it was a hard decision, particularly as a fan of BC United Leader Falcon, but the failure of United to connect with people in the province is undeniable.

He sees the Conservatives as the latest generation in a centre-right family that goes back 70 years through the BC Liberals to the Social Credit party. “It wasn’t a huge jump,” he said. “I know the people.”

The Conservatives have become the pragmatic choice for people who want to see the October election result in a change in provincial government, said Stowe. “There’s something to be said for momentum. When the public sink their teeth into something, you don’t want to stand in the way of that.”