John Rustad acknowledges divisions in B.C. Conservative party: ‘As a family, you have these issues’

Days before the B.C. Conservatives gather for their annual general meeting in Nanaimo, Leader John Rustad is facing questions about internal divisions after several unsuccessful candidates, including a party board member, called for his resignation.

Tensions between Conservative MLAs who hold differing views on Aboriginal reconciliation and how to respond to U.S. tariff threats have been on display this week in the legislature.

NDP MLA Jennifer Blatherwick tried to exploit these tensions Monday with a motion calling for a unified approach to target U.S. Republican states if tariffs were put in place. Although almost all Conservatives voted for the motion, five voted against and one abstained.

“As a family, you have these issues,” Rustad told reporters Tuesday. “People forget we built this party from nothing to winning 44 seats and just missing out on forming government in 18 months. You’re going to have issues.”

Those who voted against the motion by Blatherwick included Tara Armstrong of Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream; Dallas Brodie of Vancouver-Quilchena; Brent Chapman of Surrey-South; Jordan Kealy of Peace River-North; and Heather Maahs of Chilliwack-North. Harman Bhangu of Langley Abbotsford abstained.

Conservative whip Bruce Banman called the motion a “trap” and said members weren’t told how to vote. He said British Columbians want representatives who vote their conscience.

While the party denies there are any rifts, there have been other challenges, with former candidates Bryan Breguet and Paul Ratchford, who is also a party board member, calling for Rustad to step down, and for a leadership review if he doesn’t.

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“John Rustad was the right guy to take the party from two per cent to 40 per cent. But he isn’t the right guy to take it to victory,” said Breguet on social media. “The main problem is that Rustad is really, fundamentally, just a boring old B.C. Liberals type, except he’s very stupid on some topics. And he doesn’t really satisfy anybody on the right.”

Within the caucus itself, issues of reconciliation and policing have caused disagreements.

Over the weekend, MLA Dallas Brodie defended lawyer James Heller over his request that the Law Society of B.C. change its training materials to say burial sites have “potentially” been found at the Kamloops residential school. In her post, Brodie said: “The number of confirmed child burials at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site is zero.”