The BC Conservative AGM Was Rowdy. But Rustad Flexed Power

Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad emerged from the party’s annual general meeting Saturday in a strengthened position thanks to a process some party members described as rigged.

“As we came in, obviously there were issues and things that came up,” Rustad told The Tyee as the convention closed. “Of course there were going to be a little bit of fireworks and that’s to be expected. That’s democracy.”

Early in the day as policy debate got underway, a member took the stage uninvited to demand that “non-approved delegates” be added so that they could participate and vote.

Victoria lawyer Bruce Hallsor, who chaired the meeting, shut down the dissent saying “This is out of order.” As disruptions continued he warned that misbehaviour could lead to people being ejected from the meeting or having their memberships revoked.

Hallsor dismissed concerns about delegate selection and what some described as insufficient notice of motions to be debated, saying his job was to chair the meeting rather than address anything that preceded it.

By the end of the meeting, with more than 600 votes cast, delegates had elected the board slate Rustad had endorsed and adopted a rewritten constitution and policy declaration. Around 800 delegates attended the AGM.

“That gives me the stability I was looking for going into this next two years and the process going forward as we now transition our party from what it was into what it needs to be in order to fight and win this next election,” Rustad said as the meeting closed.

“I was feeling pretty confident coming in,” he said. “We had such a good delegate response that I know people are looking forward to what we can do in building a future, and so I was confident coming in.”

‘Kicked us to the curb’

As delegates left the Vancouver Island Conference Centre in Nanaimo, Aeriol Alderking and David Sharkey remained on the sidewalk with signs accusing the party of taking away their voices and raising concerns about how delegates had been chosen.

“Basically we were working for the last year and a half to get our MLAs elected, and then they just cancel our riding associations and kicked us to the curb after working hard to get our people elected,” said Alderking, who worked on campaigns in Abbotsford South and Abbotsford West.

People towards the right end of the spectrum, particularly Christians, have been frozen out, she said. “We’re politically homeless, the right people are politically homeless, we have no representative in this government anymore.”

Instead of local members deciding who would represent them at the meeting, applications went to the party board for consideration, said Alderking.

“You have a situation where the people up for election are choosing the people who are voting in that election,” said Sharkey, a member since around 2018 who had been a regional director for the Conservatives in the Fraser Valley. “I regard this meeting as questionable, to be generous.”

There are unresolved grievances going back a couple of years that it hasn’t been possible to resolve within the party’s structure, he said.

“It’s bubbled out to the point now where we feel compelled to display ourselves in front of the public,” he said. “What brought us here today was the delegate process, and it’s my opinion that the party leadership completely disregarded the party’s processes in selecting our delegates, which ought to be from the local area.”

Sharkey said he wanted to be clear that he was not criticizing Rustad and he believes in the membership of the party, but he is concerned with the party management.

Angelo Isidorou, the party’s executive director, did not respond to email Sunday morning.

‘Growing pains’

There were numerous references throughout the meeting to the party’s growing pains as the party seeks wider support than the social conservatives who have been its base.

As Gavin Dew, the MLA for Kelowna-Mission, put it during a panel discussion, “Yes, we’re going to have some growing pains. Yes, we’re going to have some disagreements.” The main thing though was to come together and leave the convention united on beating the NDP and forming government.

Harman Bhangu, the MLA for Langley-Abbotsford, said the day had gone well and he liked how the party leadership had introduced amendments to the proposed constitution that responded to some of the criticisms.

The changes included strengthening the language around members electing delegates to conventions, limiting board appointments to two years instead of the proposed four and holding an AGM every two years.

“Everyone is pretty united in here,” Bhangu said. “Of course you’re going to have a couple groups who don’t necessarily see everything as everyone else, but the thing is we’re letting them speak, we’re letting them voice their opinions, their concerns. We’re not shutting anyone up and I actually really like that about this party.”

The MC for the day was Lindsay Shepherd, a conservative columnist who previously sat on the party’s board.

People seen in the crowd included former BC Liberal MLAs Graham Bruce and Donna Barnett, former BC Liberal staffer Primrose Carson, Jordan Bateman from the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, Maple Leaf Strategies pollster Dimitri Pantazopoulos and former BC Liberal strategist Norman Stowe.

Angelina Ireland was at the event looking for support for a hospice in Delta where medical assistance in dying would not be offered.

Targeting sexual orientation and gender identity

Rustad said the party will keep fighting on issues that it hears about from constituents and that members want to move forward.

“Things like, for example, getting SOGI out of schools, getting rid of the sexualization of kids, is something that we stand for and we’re going to continue to do,” he said.

Known as SOGI 123, the province’s sexual orientation and gender identity resources were developed under a BC Liberal government with input from school districts, the University of British Columbia and the Ministry of Education. They include lesson plans for kindergarten to Grade 12 that are deemed appropriate for each grade, as well as templates for administrative policy and professional development for teachers.

The goal is to create a safe and inclusive environment. Supporters say having policies and procedures that explicitly reference SOGI is proven to reduce discrimination, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts for all students.

The Conservative convention also gave speaking time to Amy Hamm, a columnist who described herself as deeply involved in the cultural war over gender identity. “I’ve said such terrible things as men can’t ever become women and women deserve their own spaces free from biological men.”

Changing the approach to the toxic drug crisis is another priority, Rustad said. “Getting rid of the drugs off our streets, making sure that we have abstinence-based recovery being funded by governments, that we can get more options in there.”

He repeated a pledge that provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, who shaped the province’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has been an advocate for responding to the toxic drug crisis with harm reduction measures, would no longer be working for the province if the Conservatives form government.

The province also faces a major economic challenge, Rustad added. “We’ve got a real problem here with what’s going on south of the border and with our budgetary problems here we have to get focused on our economy, getting mines open, getting our forest industry back on its feet, making sure that people have those jobs and can support families.”

Spectre of Trump’s tariffs

Sheila Malcolmson, the NDP MLA for Nanaimo-Gabriola Island and the minister of social development and poverty reduction, was at the convention as an observer.

Targeting SOGI, anti-bullying materials that help everyone do better, is the wrong priority at a time when the province is threatened economically like never before, Malcolmson said, adding that the No. 1 concern of British Columbians is the tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.

“I look at this Conservative agenda, I don’t see any reflection of those priorities of British Columbians,” she said. “To have Rustad’s personal pick for party president be somebody who went to Trump’s inauguration, I just don’t see the fight here for the priorities of British Columbians. I see a party that’s divided and fighting among themselves.”

Aisha Estey, who was re-elected as board president, said she spent her own money to go to Washington, a city she’d never been to before, and attended a viewing party at the Canadian Embassy with many other Canadians, including federal Liberal staff members.

“I’m very disappointed with how we’re being treated right now by Trump,” Estey said. “It’s devastating to see such a historical ally bullying us like this. So that was in no way an endorsement of his position, but it was a historical moment and there were tons of people there who were not Trump supporters, but it was a great time to be in D.C. generally.”

The convention had gone well, with strong support for Rustad and the changes to the constitution and policy, Estey said.

During her speech to the convention she had promised the party would never become BC Liberals 2.0.

“With the merger with BC United, that was a concern of our members,” Estey told The Tyee. “How many of them are we going to take over and they were at 11 per cent in the polls, so we don’t want to move over into that direction at all.”

The key is sticking to the party’s values and adhering to the policy declaration, she said, though she predicted a greater focus on fiscal issues over social issues in the future.

“I think people know where we stand on the social issues,” Estey said. “A few years ago I wouldn’t have described myself as a social conservative, but just with how far some things have gone, such as SOGI, and you know, I know what a woman is, and I feel like some people have lost sense of that, so somehow I guess now I’d be a social conservative in that context.”

But as the party grows, there’s more likely to be agreement on fiscal issues. “We know what our stance is on the social issues and we’re not moving off of those, but I think we can make improvements to our fiscal policies and that’s how we can build a bigger tent.”

Estey said that the NDP were very well prepared for the last election and the Conservatives nearly beat them despite coming out of nearly nothing and being much worse prepared. “We’re going to be a much more formidable opponent come the next election and I’m excited to implement all the lessons we learned in the last one in the next one.”