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John Rustad says he intends to continue leading the Conservative Party of BC after members who voted in a leadership review gave him 71 per cent support.
And one of his first acts was to kick Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko out of the Conservative ranks, accusing her of undermining his leadership.
“I’m really pleased with the number,” Rustad said outside the legislature in Victoria Monday. “The members have spoken. I look forward to the movements ahead that we need to do.”
There were 1,268 votes cast in a process that started in June and was conducted region by region, the party announced. The party reportedly has 8,000 to 9,000 members.
“Most leadership reviews, the number is far less percentage by members, and so I think the participation has been solid,” said Rustad, the MLA for Nechako Lakes. “The key here in my mind is we have a democratic process that’s gone through. We have a clear majority from the vast majority of the members of this party, so I look forward to working with our caucus and holding our government to account, which is what our job is.”
The Conservative caucus was scheduled to meet Monday evening. Asked if there are MLAs who want him to step down, Rustad said he expects to find out at the meeting. “It’s going to be an interesting discussion with caucus, but I think the members have clearly spoken.”
Sturko said she had planned to question Rustad in the caucus meeting.
“I have serious concerns about whether or not he and his direct team have stolen people’s identities,” she told reporters. “I think John Rustad probably didn’t want to face some of the things I was going to say tonight, calling for a vote of support for his leadership. I can tell you that his support in that room is shaky at best.”
During the voting process issues arose with fraudulent memberships — including ones that used clearly fake phone numbers and suspiciously similar email addresses — but Rustad said the party removed votes that were suspect.
The party said Rustad won in 78 of the province’s 93 constituencies. In 10 ridings members voted against him continuing, and in three they were split evenly. In two ridings there were no votes cast. The party said the process was managed by an impartial third party, returning officer Mark Robertson.
Rustad, a former BC Liberal cabinet minister, became leader of the Conservative Party of BC in 2023 after Kevin Falcon booted him from BC United — formerly the BC Liberals — over a dispute around climate change and party discipline.
Over the past two years Rustad led the Conservatives from having no seats in the legislature to barely falling short of winning last October’s provincial election.
Despite the electoral success, he has struggled to keep the Conservatives united. Earlier this year he emerged from a party convention with what appeared to be strong support, only to soon have three MLAs quit his caucus.
BC Conservative whip Bruce Banman said the party needs to concentrate on returning economic prosperity to the province. "I wish Elenore well and I think the focus should be not much on a teammate who is no longer with us, but that our job is to defeat the NDP." ![[Tyee]](/design-article.thetyee.ca/ui/img/yellowblob.png){kind=small}
Read more: BC Politics
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