Watching as BC’s Political Right Implodes

You can’t really describe the warfare on B.C.’s right as a train wreck. It’s way worse than that. Imagine a train wreck where some survivors emerge and start kicking the injured.

Barely a week after two dissident MLAs announced they were forming OneBC as a new, even more socially conservative party, Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad denounced sociopaths and blackmailers trying to undermine his party.

He blamed, among others, Dallas Brodie, the new party’s interim leader, fellow OneBC MLA Tara Armstrong and Independent MLA Jordan Kealy.

All three were elected as Conservatives in October. Brodie was kicked out of the party in March by Rustad, and Armstrong and Kealy quit in protest.

That was ugly. This is hitting new levels of venomous attacks.

Brodie has accused Rustad of rigging the Conservatives’ annual general meeting in March by “paying $100,000 to bus in and waive fees and expenses for approximately one hundred South Asian attendees” to vote for his chosen party directors.

And Wolfgang Depner of the Canadian Press reported Monday on the extraordinary letter Rustad sent to his caucus accusing the OneBC team of threatening to release “blackmail materials” unless Conservative MLAs and staff obeyed instructions from the dissidents.

The letter is long and weirdly unconvincing.

Rustad alleges the three elected defectors from the party and OneBC staff tried to bribe, blackmail and threaten the families of B.C. Conservative MLAs and staff.

“The threat is framed as something like: we will pay you handsomely to join with us, and we will damage you if you refuse,” he wrote. “Being told that something personally damaging to you will be published unless you do what your blackmailer tells you to do is a new level of low.”

But Rustad’s letter also confirmed there is big unrest among the party ranks.

The blackmail, he writes, is based on email, text and phone comments that Conservative MLAs and staff had made about his poor leadership and allegations the annual general meeting was rigged.

“If you are being threatened or blackmailed in any way based on recordings or screenshots, I urge you to privately reach out to me personally so I can connect with the correct supports and our legal team,” he wrote.

“I want to be absolutely crystal clear that we are not interested in conducting an inquisition into what people have said to their former colleagues in private messages that may be released.”

And Rustad goes on — over more than five pages — to defend the AGM process, noting that paying for people to attend political conventions is common and reminding the MLAs that he personally fought to ensure they remained as candidates when BC United collapsed.

“I have been advised that... the broader goal is to divide our party and potentially take it over,” he warned. “They would like to conduct an inquisition on MLAs and staff, run purity tests on each of you, and arbitrarily remove many of you as MLAs.”

The OneBC team responded by upping the attacks.

Dallas Brodie tweeted: “Hey @JohnRustad4BC, is it ‘blackmail’ for us to offer your MLAs a clean conscience and a fresh start if they tell the truth about your AGM election rigging? It’s time to come clean!”

Tim Thielmann, Brodie’s chief of staff, went on CBC Radio to say the scandal showed Rustad could never be premier. (Thielmann was fired by Rustad as a Conservative caucus staffer over his response to Brodie’s ouster.)

Four takeaways.

First, OneBC’s attack suggests they likely have damning evidence of Conservative MLAs criticizing Rustad and the AGM process (however it was obtained). Expect to see it in coming days.

Second, Rustad’s response indicates the Conservative caucus is divided and amateur and he’s struggling to maintain support as MLAs gossip with their former colleagues about their leader’s failings.

Not that this is surprising in a party that has embraced inexperienced extremists as candidates alongside former BC United MLAs.

When Brodie was booted from the Conservatives over comments mocking and belittling residential school survivors, she claimed almost 20 Conservative MLAs supported her secretly. That might be exaggerated, but perhaps not by a lot. And less than a month after Conservative MLAs were sworn in, 13 of them challenged Rustad for not being true to social conservative principles.

This is a party where, for many members, ideological purity is more important than being effective electorally and politically.

Third, Kevin Falcon should be hanging his head in shame. Falcon’s unilateral decision to shut down the BC United campaign, clearing the way for the Conservative Party of BC, has left the province’s voters with a weak and divided right-wing alternative that looks incapable of fielding a credible campaign in the next election.

And fourth, NDP Leader David Eby should be sending thank-you cards to Falcon, Rustad and Brodie. The chaos and dysfunction in his rivals’ parties is setting the stage for years more of NDP governments.