Surrey-Cloverdale MLA Elenore Sturko says she will not be a candidate in the B.C. Conservative leadership race to replace John Rustad.
“I won’t be running,” Sturko told Black Press Media.
Sturko, who remains an Independent, said that she feels the best way for her to have an impact is to focus on the major issues facing her constituents, not on a leadership race.
“I hope that in some way I will have a role to play with how we move our province ahead in the future, but I think that the best thing for me to do right now is to concentrate on the front line of politics instead of the party side of politics,” she said.
She decided not to run after reflecting on what it would mean for both her and her family.
“After looking at what’s happening right now in my community and in the province as a whole, evaluating the situation and how that would impact my family,” she said, “I made that decision that this is not something that I’m going to do.”
Rustad resigned on Dec. 4 after months of tumult within the party, with MLAs leaving the caucus and the majority of the party’s management board calling for his ouster.
Rustad booted Sturko from caucus in September, immediately after he survived a province-wide leadership review with slightly more than 70 per cent support from party rank-and-file members. He accused Sturko of organizing against him.
Eventually, the majority of his caucus did organize against him, voting him down as party leader on Oct. 3. A party news release said he had become “professionally incapacitated.”
Rustad tried to cling to power, but stepped down as leader the next day. He will stay on as an MLA, and interim leader Trevor Halford has given him a joint role as Indigenous Relations critic with MLA Scott McInnis.
Sturko said she has had conversations with Halford via text about the possibility of rejoining the B.C. Conservatives, but before a decision is made, work needs to be done to “stabilize” the situation within the caucus.
“At this point, I don’t know if they’re going to make any decisions as a caucus or if they’ll be waiting for their next leader to make that decision,” she said.
Despite still being on the outside of the caucus, Sturko remains a dues-paying party member, and her name has been floated by many as a possible replacement for Rustad. She said her office has been flooded with calls and emails from people urging her to run.
“It’s just wonderful to see that I have support in the community and across the province from people who believe in me in that way,” she said.
But with all that is currently at stake with healthcare, affordability and Indigenous relations, and after a year of the party “looking inward” while Rustad struggled to hold onto his leadership post, Sturko does not want to get bogged down in more political wrangling.
“I think the best thing right now for my constituents isn’t if I spend more time looking at governance of a party or doing that type of political work, but doing the kind of work that will deliver the results that the people in my riding need and British Columbians need.”
Whoever the next leader is, Sturko hopes they have “lots of empathy” and care for what people in the province are going through, as well as the leadership skills necessary to bring the various ideological factions of the party together.
“It’s going to have to be a person who is interested in building that unity,” she said.