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BC Conservative Party Leader John Rustad says a letter signed by the seven current members of the party’s management committee is an internal matter, and he won’t be resigning.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
Beleaguered BC Conservative Leader John Rustad rejected calls from his hand-picked party officials to step down Wednesday.
“I am not going to be resigning,” Mr. Rustad told reporters outside his legislature office. The Leader of the Official Opposition has been embroiled in controversy for months as his caucus fractures and calls for his resignation mount.
Mr. Rustad had promised free votes and freedom of speech to his caucus of mostly rookie MLAs, which exposed a large gulf between his team over social conservative values.
Party president Aisha Estey was one of seven members of the party’s management committee who signed a letter to Mr. Rustad, asking him to immediately step down and blaming him for the “unprecedented level of turmoil” that has engulfed the party since it formed B.C.’s Official Opposition one year ago.
“The constant and prolonged discord shows no signs of abating,” the Oct. 21 letter reads. “The resulting state of chaos – driven by a series of decisions and actions taken under your leadership – has destabilized the party’s internal cohesion and diminished its public credibility.”
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Mr. Rustad said his party’s top officials are wrong, and that his 39-member caucus is “in a good place.” He said he has the support of his party’s membership, after a vote over the summer.
“I believe strongly in democracy. They’ve given me a mandate to carry forward, and there are some people clearly that don’t believe in that democracy, and that’s fine. They’ve got that right to voice their opinion, but I’m going to be carrying forward with the work that needs to be done.”
Conservative caucus members were mostly silent as they marched into the House on Wednesday afternoon for Question Period. A Rustad loyalist, Rosalyn Bird, said she was disappointed in the actions of the party executive.
“I’m actually also disappointed, quite frankly, with mainstream media, because you guys continue to focus on these As the World Turns stories, instead of the excellent work that this caucus is doing.”
Mr. Rustad did not attend Question Period, remaining in his office instead.
In October, 2024, Mr. Rustad’s party was celebrating after coming within a whisker of winning the provincial election. It was a remarkable achievement for a party that had zero seats in the legislature just two years earlier.
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Fractures soon appeared. At the party’s raucous convention last March, Mr. Rustad treated Ms. Estey as a key ally, fighting to keep her and the senior party executive in place against a slate of dissidents. “We need to move to a professional board that provides the guidance, the governance that’s needed,” he told delegates in his appeal to them to keep his team in place.
Since then, Mr. Rustad has backed down on his commitment to free votes, refused to submit to a secret ballot vote on his leadership in caucus, and had MLAs turn over their cellphones to a spot search in the hunt for a source of internal leaks to the media.
He fired his highest-profile MLA, Elenore Sturko, for calling the leadership vote results into question. Mr. Rustad garnered 70 per cent support among those members who voted, but the process was tainted by allegations of improper, mass membership sign-ups.
The latest controversy involved the resignation of another member of the Conservative caucus, Amelia Boultbee, who is the fifth MLA to quit or be fired in recent months.
Earlier this month, Mr. Rustad whipped his caucus to support a private member’s bill, the “Protecting Minors from Gender Transition Act.” Two Conservatives, including Ms. Boultbee, ducked out of the chamber before the vote. Ms. Boultbee has also expressed concern about the caucus hosting a Christian advocacy group known for its opposition to homosexuality and abortion.
Mr. Rustad responded to Ms. Boultbee’s departure by calling her mental health into question.
Ms. Boultbee, standing outside the Conservative caucus offices on Wednesday, repeated her call for Mr. Rustad to step down. “There’s no formal mechanism to make him step down, but one would hope he would finally come to reality and see what’s going on,” she said.
