Western Canada: B.C. centre-right coalition party falls apart as MLAs defect to BC Conservatives

Good morning.

Wendy Cox in Vancouver this morning.

In B.C. politics, the ghost of the 1996 election has long been enough to keep those who lean centre-right or even a bit further right in the same tent.

That was the year then BC Liberal leader Gordon Campbell lost an election to the NDP’s Glen Clark, despite winning the majority of the popular vote. The NDP won 39 seats to the BC Liberals’ 33, setting the stage for four bitter years of fractiousness.

The Reform party was the spoiler then, winning only 9 per cent of the popular vote, but siphoning votes away from the Liberals. The party sent two MLAs to the legislature, both of whom eventually defected to the BC Liberals.

For years, Campbell had clear rules for his MLAs. While some voted Liberal federally and others voted Conservative federally, federal politics was to be left at the caucus door. The mission: Stick together and leave the vote splitting to the BC NDP and Greens.

But as with many ghosts, their ability to haunt doesn’t last forever. What was once the BC Liberal party is coming undone in name and in the polls.

The BC Liberals rebranded as BC United, an effort to distance themselves from the federal Liberals that may have the unintended consequence of leaving the party without any brand at all. And the spoiler is the BC Conservatives, a party that analysts says is riding the branding wave in the opposite direction: rocketing up in the polls while hanging on to federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s ankles.

The scrupulous efforts made by Campbell and his successors to ensure the centre-right vote wasn’t split again appear in ruins at the hands of a party led by a former BC Liberal cabinet minister who was turfed from BC United by leader Kevin Falcon last year over his views on climate change.

John Rustad, who took up the Conservative label that hasn’t seen a seat in the legislature in decades, was joined last September by Bruce Banman, who crossed the floor from BC United to join Rustad. Banman has refused to say whether he agrees or disagrees with climate change. Last week, BC United’s caucus chair crossed to the Conservatives and on Monday, Falcon received the biggest blow yet: Rising political star and former RCMP officer Elenore Sturko defected.

“I think this is the right decision to make,” Sturko said. “And I have the best interest of British Columbians in mind when I’m doing this.”

In light of the shifting political ground (the NDP still maintain the lead, but the Conservatives are leading BC United), The Globe and Mail’s editorial board invited Rustad to discuss his agenda.

Rustad outlined a vision that includes sweeping changes to schools, housing, climate and reconciliation with First Nations if the Conservatives are elected to form government this fall.

The party would repeal the provincial Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in favour of pivoting to an approach of “economic reconciliation” by signing business deals with individual First Nations.

As well, the party would strike a committee to review all school textbooks and literature to ensure they are “neutral,” Rustad said.

“It shouldn’t be about indoctrination of anything, whether that’s environmental or whether that’s political or whether that’s sexual,” Rustad said, referencing his proposal to censor books deemed by his Conservative government to be inappropriate for students.

Regarding health care, he decried the NDP’s management of the health-care system and said he has spoken with a group of medical professionals who agree.

“I’m told that there’s only one jurisdiction that even comes close to following what we do and that’s North Korea – and it’s not exactly a stellar model, from my perspective, of success in health care,” said Rustad, who added that his government would immediately fire Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry over her support for COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Rustad refused to identify the group of medical professionals that provided this analysis.

On climate change, Rustad has been vocal about ending the province’s carbon tax, which the BC Liberals created in 2008 as the first such levy in North America.

Rustad argues the science around human causes of climate change is “a theory and it’s not proven,” a position widely at odds with accepted science. But Rustad maintains there is no pressing need to legislate solutions.

“It’s not even a crisis,” he told The Globe.

Whether Rustad can lure more centrist voters away from BC United to ensure vote-splitting doesn’t guarantee an NDP win will be interesting to watch.

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.