At a Victoria conference centre in June, people gathered to hear from speakers like Tamara Lich, a key organizer of the “Freedom Convoy” protests; Lauren Southern, a far-right YouTuber who was once barred from entering the United Kingdom; and Artur Pawlowski, a pastor from Alberta who was charged multiple times with violating health orders that prohibited gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And BC United, far behind in the polls three months before the election, used it to launch an attack on Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad and his party.
United blasted out a press release criticizing the conference and noting that Rustad spoke at We Unify’s 2023 version of the same conference, as had Conservative candidate Anna Kindy.
During his 2023 speech, Rustad had warned about climate policies that could curtail people’s freedom of movement and talked about a plant in Ontario that was raising insects “for human and animal consumption.”
BC United said Rustad’s 2023 appearance suggested he backed the views of speakers at both conferences.
“British Columbians deserve to know whether John Rustad’s B.C. Conservative party continues to endorse the views of the Reclaiming Canada conference, including the anti-immigrant and racist views of Lauren Southern, and a wild conspiracy theory that the government is trying to force people to eat bugs,” BC United MLA Peter Milobar is quoted as saying in the release.
“These views are not only extremist but completely out of touch with the values of mainstream British Columbians.”
While Rustad and Kindy didn’t participate in the Reclaiming Canada conference this year, B.C. Conservative candidate John Koury was seen attending a VIP luncheon at the gathering, according to a report in the Victoria Times Colonist.
The Conservative Party of BC did not respond to The Tyee’s request for comment, but executive director Angelo Isidorou previously told the Times Colonist that the party and its leader “are not participating in this conference and have nothing to do with it.” The Tyee also contacted John Koury but did not hear back by publication time.
Stewart Prest, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, said BC United is in a tough spot.
The centre-right party, which recently changed its name from the BC Liberals, has always presented itself as a big-tent, business-friendly party that included a wide range of political beliefs — including politicians with socially conservative views on topics like gay marriage. (Even when the party carried the Liberal name, it was not affiliated with the federal Liberal party.)
“They seem to be simultaneously trying to do two things: to cast the B.C. Conservatives as a fringe right-wing, populist party,” Prest said. “And at the same time to show themselves as being a potential home for those votes. So that's a difficult line to walk.”
Rustad, a former BC Liberal MLA, took on the leadership of the B.C. Conservatives after being ousted from the BC Liberals in 2022 when he shared a social media post that was skeptical of the science of climate change.
Rustad’s Conservative party opposes vaccine mandates and sexual orientation and gender identity, or SOGI, policies in B.C. schools, and has promised to end the province’s groundbreaking carbon tax and other environmental protections.
BC United has tracked to the right as well on some of these issues. Leader Kevin Falcon refused to say whether he would implement legislation requiring parental consent before a student under 16 can be referred to by another name or pronoun in the classroom.
While the BC Liberals introduced the carbon tax in 2008, Falcon has now promised to reduce the tax.
And both the B.C. Conservatives and BC United are fiercely opposed to harm reduction policies like safe supply and decriminalization, saying they would focus on addiction treatment to address the province’s deadly overdose crisis.
At the same time, the B.C. Conservatives have taken pains to move to the centre, recruiting candidates like former BC United MLA Elenore Sturko — an openly gay former RCMP officer — and Linda Hepner, a former Surrey mayor. Meanwhile, candidates who have expressed more extreme views have left: Damon Scrase stepped down after scrutiny on several harshly homophobic social media posts he’d made, while suspended doctor Stephen Malthouse was dropped after public attention on false claims he’d made about COVID-19 and vaccines.
A messy spat about failed negotiations for the two parties to co-operate during the election also played out in the public eye this spring.
Prest said the tactics of both parties may be confusing for voters: BC United is raising grave concerns about the B.C. Conservatives’ interest in far-right ideas, yet just a few months ago tried to make a deal with them.
Meanwhile, the B.C. Conservatives’ attempt to move to the centre and present a more palatable option also presents contradictions.
“The B.C. Conservatives continue to be a place where these ‘skeptics of modernity’ are welcome. People who are skeptical about the need to take action about climate change. People who are skeptical about the idea of using vaccines in the context of a pandemic. People who are skeptical about things like SOGI, gender-inclusive education,” Prest said.
“Just a few months ago, that was a core part of why that party existed was to create a home for those voters. And yet in the last couple of months, we've seen as they rise in the polls, they have also tried to build themselves up as the big-tent, right-of-centre party.”
In an interview with The Tyee, Milobar acknowledged that BC United has MLAs with socially conservative ideas.
But he said voters have a right to know if Rustad still agrees with the views being expressed by speakers at the Reclaiming Canada conference.
“Our leaders were held to a standard by the media and the public to make statements and answer and explain those views and how those views do or don't sit within the broader context of our party,” Milobar said.
“None of our leaders ever spoke at a conference like this, and yet John Rustad did.”
Prest said we are now in a new political reality where ideas that formerly seemed fringe or radical have moved into the mainstream. Young people are especially receptive to these ideas, which have been repeated frequently in right-wing media bubbles and by American politicians until they seem more normal.
But in Canada, Conservative parties have a history of winning on economic, “pocketbook issues” — not socially conservative ideas.
“People are again and again not deterred by that fringe messaging,” said Prest.
“I think ultimately the elections are about how this party will affect people's economic circumstance. That seems like the lens through which voters more often than not will vote.”
Read more: BC Politics
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