An internal party revolt against B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad is continuing to grow, with 30 riding association representatives now calling for caucus members to force his resignation.
According to a letter obtained by Black Press Media and dated Tuesday, Nov. 18, those riding officials say that with Rustad as leader, winning an election would be “virtually impossible.”
Burnaby North riding association president Corey Brooks, who is an organizer of this anti-Rustad insurgency, said that the effort was nearly successful at a caucus meeting on Tuesday night.
“From the sounds of it, we were very close to achieving our goal,” he said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen at this meeting because of some procedural tricks and filibustering.”
Brooks was not at the meeting himself — it was for sitting MLAs, not riding officials — but several people confirmed the accuracy of this characterization of events.
“It’s become clear that John and his people are not ruling with the consent of his caucus,” Brooks said.
Rustad recently survived a leadership review, which is the only mechanism for his removal, according to the party constitution. Because of this, Brooks reckons that it will take the entire caucus standing up and telling him, “John, we are not going to follow you anymore,” for him to be forced out.
He also said that most people he has spoken to within the party who support Rustad publicly don’t actually want him as leader.
“They just are afraid of the NDP calling a snap election, and they’re afraid of the devil they don’t know rather than the devil they do,” he said.
Caucus members themselves are unwilling to speak publicly about what happened in Tuesday night’s meeting, even off the record, because of what was described as the “paranoia and vindictiveness” of Rustad and the people around him.
The B.C. Conservative caucus has had five members defect or be ejected since the October 2024 election, and the majority of the party’s board has called for him to resign. At one point in early October, caucus leaders searched members’ phones during a meeting after someone had leaked information to the press.
Asked about this on Wednesday, Rustad defended the move to search phones as a group decision.
“It wasn’t something I demanded, it wasn’t something I required,” he said. “It was something that was agreed upon by caucus members — to look at phones to see if we could find if there was a leak that came out of our caucus.”
Rustad wouldn’t comment on what happened during the Tuesday caucus meeting either, but said of the push for him to quit that he had already gone through a “transparent and democratic” leadership review, with more than 70 per cent of party rank-and-file supporting him.
“There are some who are not happy with that result,” he said. “They have the right to express their opinion.”
Surrey-Panorama riding president Ed Hird said he had long supported Rustad and actually voted for him this past summer when it was his riding’s turn to vote in the party leadership review.
“But since that time, it’s become very plain that John is not the person to unite the party and bring us to the next level,” he said.
Hird decided to step aside as riding president when he joined the effort to press for Rustad’s ouster and signed his name to the Tuesday letter urging a caucus mutiny. He remains a party member and is hopeful for a leadership contest.
The phone searches were a turning point for him.
“Freedom of speech and privacy is very important to actual conservatives,” Hird said.
He compared the situation to the federal Conservative leadership race that elected Pierre Poilievre. Until former leader Erin O’Toole stepped down, Hird said the party was “stuck,” but was reinvigorated by a leadership contest.
He figures that if Rustad steps down, he could end up being seen as an elder statesman of sorts, responsible for taking the party from the electoral wilderness to the Official Opposition.
“He could still be like a grandfatherly figure to the party — if he chose to be gracious,” Hird said.
All of the people Black Press Media spoke to are also concerned about the impact the turmoil is having on fundraising efforts.
Asked about this, Rustad only said, “We’ll see when the fourth-quarter results come out.”
Those in the riding associations are worried, and Hird said that dragging this out is causing members to leave and donations to decrease.
“Everything’s down,” he said. “And it doesn’t need to be.”