B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad pauses as he addresses supporters on election night in Vancouver, on Oct. 19.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
British Columbia’s new Conservative opposition is embroiled in an internal caucus battle that has spilled into a public debate over social values, though the party’s leader is stressing his commitment to free speech and the need to focus on broader campaign issues.
Conservative Leader John Rustad received a letter late last month signed by 13 MLAs criticizing his star recruit, Elenore Sturko, after she publicly supported the decision of a Vancouver police board member to resign for making comments that she said could be offensive toward ethnic and gender minorities.
The letter targeting Ms. Sturko – a former RCMP officer, a defector from the BC United party, and the new Opposition critic for policing and justice issues – was since leaked to the media, exposing a divided caucus that met Tuesday.
The October election resulted in a seismic shift in B.C. politics, with the governing NDP being reduced to a bare majority with 47 of 93 seats. The Conservatives, who had zero presence in the province two years ago, were within a hair’s breadth of winning, and now dominate the opposition with 44 MLAs. The Greens have two seats.
Mr. Rustad, who promised his candidates the right to free speech, rejected calls during the election campaign to dump candidates who had publicly shared racist and transphobic views, as well as conspiracy theories about vaccines. His would be the party of free speech, he maintained, and MLAs would not be whipped to maintain caucus discipline.
“We are redefining a political party,” he said in an interview Tuesday, shortly before his MLAs met to air their differences. The Conservative Leader said growing pains are to be expected, as the mostly-rookie caucus gets its feet. “I’m not concerned about this at all.”
However, he acknowledged that he has work ahead to bring his caucus together. The legislature will sit in February, and he said he’ll use the time until then to remind his members to stay focused on the issues that matter to British Columbians, such as health care, public safety and affordability: “That’s what unites us,” he said.
“This is part of a growing lesson for everybody, including myself,” he added. “Everybody in our caucus –Elenore and others in the caucus – have to understand that freedom of speech means freedom of speech, and that means if somebody wants to take a position that I am diabolically opposed to, they are able to do that, and we have to find a way to be able to work together to a common good.”
The caucus was asked to refrain from airing disagreements in such a public manner in the future.
The dispute was triggered by last month’s resignation of a member of the Vancouver Police Board, Comfort Sakoma-Fadugba, who was asked to quit because she had made statements on social media that “do not reflect the values of the Board and are inconsistent with our code of conduct,” according to the board’s vice-chair.
Ms. Sakoma-Gadugba has apologized for her comments, which have since been removed from Reddit. According to media reports, she had posted concerns about gender transitioning among children and complained that celebrating ethnic diversity in schools is “erasing Christian values from the lives of our children.”
Ms. Sturko told CBC News that she agreed with the decision, noting that minorities and members of the transgender community might be offended by Ms. Sakoma-Fadugba’s comments.
But the 13 MLAs who wrote a letter to Mr. Rustad called for Ms. Sturko to apologize to the former police board member “to restore confidence in the core values of the Conservative caucus.”
On Tuesday, those MLAs filed into the caucus room at the B.C. Legislature, each offering a variation of “no comment” as they walked past reporters.
Ms. Sturko, however, did stop, saying she was prepared to work with the caucus: “I am surrounded by supportive colleagues,” she said. “I have no trepidation about meeting with the entire caucus.”
Ms. Sturko joined Mr. Rustad’s party when she crossed the floor from the BC United party in June. As a member and vocal defender of the LGBTQ community, her defection was considered a major coup for the fledgling Conservatives, and the Conservative Leader gave her a prominent, front-bench role in tackling public-safety issues.
But Mr. Rustad on Monday sided with Ms. Sakoma-Gadugba, posting on the social media channel X that he had met with her and they “talked about our shared values of family, faith, and community and about what it means to be proudly Christian and proudly conservative.” In that post, he asked Ms. Sturko to meet with her, too, an offer his justice critic declined.
The Conservative Leader said Tuesday that he supports Ms. Sturko’s right to advance LGBTQ rights, adding his party’s core values should not be described as Christian as his party represents a broad range of ethnicities and religions.
“I am Christian, and I have spent my whole political career not mixing my faith with my politics, and I don’t plan to change that.”