Rustad Survives as the BC Conservatives Implode

The real problem for the Conservative Party of BC isn’t leader John Rustad.

It’s that they’re not a real party.

The Conservatives, despite almost forming government, are the political equivalent of one of those boy bands created by a sharp promoter looking for quick profits.

This week Rustad survived, barely, the mandatory leadership review after the October election defeat. He claimed victory with 71 per cent support from party members who voted in a protracted, clunky and suspect leadership review.

That means almost one-third of members voted to fire him.

And instead of a vote at a party conference or a provincewide mail ballot, the Conservatives chose to hold votes in each riding over four months.

The response from party members was dismal. The Conservatives claimed to have about 9,000 members at the start of the process.

But only 1,268 people — about 14 per cent of claimed members — participated in the leadership review vote. That works out to an average of 14 people per riding across the province. And an average of 10 people in each riding backed Rustad’s continued leadership.

The main takeaway is that the B.C. Conservatives, despite their strong showing in the October election, aren’t a real party with committed members and riding associations and common purpose.

That’s not surprising. The Conservatives’ electoral success was based on a backroom deal. BC United — the party formerly known as the BC Liberals — was struggling in the months before the election campaign. Leader Kevin Falcon, under pressure from business interests, agreed to shut down the United campaign, fire all the party’s candidates and cede the campaign to Rustad and the Conservatives.

Party members — Conservative and United — weren’t involved. Just a handful of special interests and insiders.

It almost worked. The party won 43 per cent of the popular vote and came within three seats of forming government.

Events since suggest British Columbians dodged a bullet.

Less than a month after the new Conservative MLAs were sworn in, 13 of them attacked Rustad over his support for MLA Elenore Sturko, who had condemned the anti-immigrant statements of a Vancouver Police Board member.

In March, Rustad booted MLA Dallas Brodie from the party for her comments mocking residential school survivors, prompting two other MLAs to quit. Brodie and Tara Armstrong, the MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream, formed a new party, OneBC.

And after announcing the underwhelming results of the leadership review this week, Rustad immediately kicked Sturko, whom he once defended, out of the party.

Rustad has refused to offer a clear reason.

But Sturko said she planned to question Rustad about allegations of fraud in the effort to win support for his leadership and call for a caucus vote on whether he should be replaced.

“I have serious concerns about whether or not he and his direct team have stolen people’s identities,” she told reporters Monday. “I think John Rustad probably didn’t want to face some of the things I was going to say.”

The leadership review was plunged into scandal after reports about 2,000 members joining the party on the same day, apparently to boost Rustad’s support.

Sturko, a lesbian former RCMP officer, also said Rustad dumped her to ensure the support of social conservative MLAs in the Conservative ranks.

All this comes with the legislature set to resume sitting in two weeks.

Rustad will probably survive as leader until then.

But the B.C. Conservatives have demonstrated they’re not to be taken seriously. If a party can’t manage basic unity or run a leadership review without credible allegations of corruption, it can hardly be trusted to form government.

And it is a near certainty that more troubles — and a massive implosion — are ahead.

The big winner is Premier David Eby. At a time when an effective opposition could raise sharp questions about his government’s performance in responding to the issues confronting British Columbians, he faces a scandal-plagued and divided Conservative party.