Drama for the BC Conservatives

It was another turbulent year in B.C. politics — one that saw an upstart party nearly implode similarly to its predecessor.

The beginning of the year looked like clear blue skies ahead for the BC Conservatives.

The party had just come off a hugely successful election run — coming within a hair of actually forming government.

That was in no small part thanks to the leadership of John Rustad, who’d crossed the floor after being fired by BC United, formerly the BC Liberals — and brought the party up from virtually nothing.

But the honeymoon phase wouldn’t last long.

In the span of just a few months, five MLAs were fired or defected.

First, Rustad expelled Vancouver-Quilchena MLA Dallas Brodie for comments she made mocking residential school survivors. Kelowna–Lake Country–Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong and Peace River North MLA Jordan Kealy quit the party in protest. Brodie and Armstrong later set up their own rival party, OneBC — though the two have also since parted.

Rustad also fired one of his most prominent MLAs, Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko, over allegations that she had been organizing against him. Sturko denied those claims.

Meanwhile, a long, drawn-out leadership review was quickly mired by allegations that someone in the party had been stacking the membership list with fake signups.

And there were growing public calls for Rustad to step down — including from his party’s own executive board.

It came to a head in early December, when more than half of the Conservative caucus signed onto a letter saying that they had lost confidence in Rustad’s leadership.

What followed was a spectacular standoff.

Rustad refused to resign and repeatedly pointed to the party’s constitution, which only allows a leader’s removal through resignation, death, incapacitation, or leadership review.

The board, hours later, released a statement saying they’d deemed him “professionally incapacitated” and removed him as leader.

But, shortly after the party statement, Rustad took to social media to declare he had not been removed, and was “not going anywhere.”

In a since-deleted post, Rustad said, “A political party’s board can throw around whatever creative terminology they like, ‘professional incapacitation’? Give me a break.”

Later, in the B.C. Legislature, Rustad was seen occupying the seat of the Leader of the Opposition.

But the writing was on the wall.

Less than 24 hours later, Rustad publicly said he’d resign as leader — but says he believes the Conservatives will win the next election.

“I know many are concerned by what they saw yesterday, but I want to assure every member and supporter of the caucus and the party that this was not a hostile takeover by BC Liberals. We remain a Conservative party,” said Rustad’s statement.