B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad says he expects business leaders to step up and fill the party’s coffers in preparation for the next provincial election.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
John Rustad, the leader of British Columbia’s official opposition, says questions about his grip on the B.C. Conservative Party are behind him, and he issued a call to the province’s business community to start fundraising.
Mr. Rustad asserted control this week when he passed a leadership review with a 70-per-cent approval rating from party members, and promptly expelled a high-profile member of his caucus, Elenore Sturko, for working behind the scenes to unseat him.
“There’s no leader of a political party in this country who would welcome and keep somebody like that in their caucus,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
The B.C. Conservative Party was revived by Mr. Rustad a little more than two years ago, and there was an expectation that it would inherit the fundraising machine behind the former B.C. Liberal Party that it replaced.
Although the Liberals forfeited the last provincial election to make way for Mr. Rustad’s party, financial contributions to the Conservatives have stalled in recent months.
Senior political fundraisers who had helped bankroll the Liberals warned that the Conservatives were not centrist enough to take on the NDP. And the latest campaign finance disclosures show the governing New Democratic Party hauled in twice as much cash as the Conservatives in the second quarter of the year.
Mr. Rustad said that is about to change. He vowed to remain an “unapologetic Conservative,” but with the leadership issue behind him, he said, he expects business leaders to step up and fill the party’s coffers in preparation for the next provincial election.
B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad fires highest-profile MLA ahead of caucus meeting
He maintains his party is the only viable political vehicle of the centre-right.
“Part of the challenge when I talked to them about our fundraising is they were wondering what was happening with the leadership,” Mr. Rustad said.
“Now that that has been resolved, I’ve spoken with many of the people who are very interested in putting together some fundraisers and helping us out with making sure that we have the war chest we need to fight the NDP in the next election.”
Ms. Sturko was one of the star candidates that Mr. Rustad recruited from the Liberal benches to help him quickly build the moribund B.C. Conservative Party into a force that nearly toppled the NDP in the October, 2024, provincial election.
The former RCMP officer, who is gay, has been a vocal defender of LGBTQ+ rights, and her willingness to join the Conservatives sent a signal that Mr. Rustad was leading a big-tent party that could attract a broad spectrum of centre-right support.
On Tuesday, she said she will sit as an Independent MLA when legislators return to the House on Oct. 6. She said she’ll advocate for a centre-right coalition that brings together federal Conservatives and Liberals alike – and she no longer believes that Mr. Rustad can unite such a party.
“The only way, I believe, for the B.C. Conservative Party to form the next government is if they have new leadership,” she said in an interview.
Ms. Sturko initially told reporters on Monday night that she was blindsided by her expulsion from the caucus and party.
On Tuesday, however, she said she should not have been surprised, because she had raised questions about Mr. Rustad’s leadership.
“I wasn’t organizing against him to run for leadership,” she said. “But I was talking to other Conservative MLAs about my concerns.”
Mr. Rustad’s party nearly unseated the incumbent NDP in last October’s election, taking 44 seats to the NDP’s 47, with two seats for the Greens. Since then, the Conservative caucus has been reduced to 40 seats, owing to defections and Ms. Sturko’s firing.
Mr. Rustad met with his caucus Monday night and emerged with what he said is a team united behind the goal of defeating the NDP. But he could not say if the entire caucus supports his leadership, adding that he did not explicitly ask for their loyalty.
“But what I will say is this: I believe strongly in democracy, and members of the party have spoken. If there are caucus members that don’t believe in democracy and think that they know better, I guess then we’re going to have some other future issues,” he said.