BC Cons, Leader OUT

[herbie]

Party leader John Rustad conceded the leadership of the party today after he was removed by the Party itself.

The mishmosh of slapped together anti-left demagogues has quickly disintegrated since the election. 

[Nefarious Banana]

Have listened to John Rustad numerous times on CKNW. 

When asked about anything he always answered fully with a reasonable set of solutions.

Was hoping he'd be the next Premier of BC.

Horgan handed over a surplus to an un-elected David Eby. 

The NDP gave themselves big pay raises, in a short time lost the surplus, and put the Province in debt.

And, nothing to show for it.

If there wasn't forestry/logging on private lands, there wouldn't be any at all.

The list of NDP screw-ups is long and harsh.  BC deserves a better government than Eby's NDP.

[CdnFox]

Rustad had the potential to be a good leader. But the problem was he wasn't a good campaigner. I don't think people had faith that he would be able to win an election.

He got a shot at it, they came very close, but since then I don't think he's inspired people to believe that he's going to be able to pull everyone together and make a wind happen.

Not that David EBY should be all that hard to beat

[herbie]

14 hours ago, CdnFox said:

Rustad had the potential to be a good leader.

No he didn't and that just proved out.
He gathered a gaggle of louts, extremists and whiners under a name and that's about it.
The latest lunatic wants to celebrate the Convoy with a stat holiday.

How can a mouse in a room full of cats be a leader?

[blackbird]

2 hours ago, herbie said:

17 hours ago, CdnFox said:

Rustad had the potential to be a good leader.

No he didn't and that just proved out.

Why would anybody believe anything you say about it?  You're a staunch NDP/  Eby supporter.

[Nefarious Banana]

Dianne Watts?

Christy Clark?

[eyeball]

So just to be sure Rustad and the loons are out and it's back to...Liberals.

BC's less irrational right wing. LMAO!

[herbie]

4 hours ago, blackbird said:

Why would anybody believe anything you say about it?  You're a staunch NDP/  Eby supporter.

Because only someone so pigheadedly stubborn would be stupid enough to think someone's political opinion colours the facts that played out in front of everyone's very eyes.

Like saying because I like Debian Linux, I can't be any f*cking good at fixing Windows computers.

[CdnFox]

7 hours ago, herbie said:

No he didn't and that just proved out.

No it didn't. Don't make me explain politics to you again pls. 

 

Quote

He gathered a gaggle of louts, extremists and whiners under a name and that's about it.

LOL bitter much?

Quote

The latest lunatic wants to celebrate the Convoy with a stat holiday.

Why not?

Quote

How can a mouse in a room full of cats be a leader?

Ask eby. 

[SpankyMcFarland]

I know nothing about BC politics but when did that stop me? Eby looked eminently beatable - he’s not a charismatic campaigner by any means - and now I’ve a better idea of one advantage he had. Rustad couldn’t get on with his own side. What a catalogue of unnecessary squabbling. A leader has to choose his battles, make peace with highly dislikeable people and keep the differences within the tent. It’s almost the opposite of the online world. Above all, go with dignity when the party loses faith in you. Don’t make them drag you out.

Edited December 6, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[blackbird]

23 minutes ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

Don’t make them drag you out.

He was hardly dragged out.  He received 71% support of the party in a leadership review only a few months ago.   He also built the party from about 2 MLAs to about 39 MLA in the last election.  That was a monumental achievement.  The fact is the BC Liberal Party folded and joined the BC Conservatives with John Rustad as BC Conservative leader.  That should never be forgotten.  

The reason why there may be some division in the party is obvious.  Most of them were BC Liberals and they became BC Conservatives and that almost beat the NDP.  They were only a few seats short of winning.  A lot of those former Liberals likely still hold a lot of the former LIberal party beliefs.  That's likely the problem.  Several were kicked out because of their behavior.  Rustad had to deal with a myriad of diverse opinions and many members don't understand they can't have things their own way.   They are not out of the woods yet.  They will have to find a way to be united even if a lot of them have different views than the others.   If they don't,  BC will be stuck with NDP rule which is destroying the province.

John Rustad could have stuck in there because the vote by caucus to remove him was not how party leaders are chosen or removed.  However, he is correct in leaving and removing himself from a "civil war" in the caucus.  It is not worth fighting over.   He never signed up for that kind of thing.  He did his best.  Everything I heard him say is right on.  He had many years as an MLA and did great in bringing the BC Conservatives from nothing to a party that could win the next election.  He is going to retire after the next election and hopefully enjoy life with his family.

Edited December 6, 2025 by blackbird

[SpankyMcFarland]

26 minutes ago, blackbird said:

He was hardly dragged out.  He received 71% support of the party in a leadership review only a few months ago.   He also built the party from about 2 MLAs to about 39 MLA in the last election.  That was a monumental achievement.  The fact is the BC Liberal Party folded and joined the BC Conservatives with John Rustad as BC Conservative leader.  That should never be forgotten.  

The reason why there may be some division in the party is obvious.  Most of them were BC Liberals and they became BC Conservatives and that almost beat the NDP.  They were only a few seats short of winning.  A lot of those former Liberals likely still hold a lot of the former LIberal party beliefs.  That's likely the problem.  Several were kicked out because of their behavior.  Rustad had to deal with a myriad of diverse opinions and many members don't understand they can't have things their own way.   They are not out of the woods yet.  They will have to find a way to be united even if a lot of them have different views than the others.   If they don't,  BC will be stuck with NDP rule which is destroying the province.

John Rustad could have stuck in there because the vote by caucus to remove him was not how party leaders are chosen or removed.  However, he is correct in leaving and removing himself from a "civil war" in the caucus.  It is not worth fighting over.   He never signed up for that kind of thing.  He did his best.  Everything I heard him say is right on.  He had many years as an MLA and did great in bringing the BC Conservatives from nothing to a party that could win the next election.  He is going to retire after the next election and hopefully enjoy life with his family.

People who build or resurrect parties often can’t lead them. I think we are looking at a recurring issue in our politics too. The Canadian right seems to have a chronic difficulty keeping itself together, something that left-wing parties used to struggle with - unwilling to tolerate more moderate opinions in its ranks. In a country that’s majority left of centre that’s a serious handicap. You need voters who are fiscally conservative but don’t buy the rest of the package. 

Edited December 6, 2025 by SpankyMcFarland

[CdnFox]

18 hours ago, Nefarious Banana said:

Dianne Watts?

Christy Clark?

You go sit in your corner and think about what you've done. 

[CdnFox]

3 hours ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

I know nothing about BC politics but when did that stop me? Eby looked eminently beatable - he’s not a charismatic campaigner by any means - and now I’ve a better idea of one advantage he had. Rustad couldn’t get on with his own side. What a catalogue of unnecessary squabbling. A leader has to choose his battles, make peace with highly dislikeable people and keep the differences within the tent. It’s almost the opposite of the online world. Above all, go with dignity when the party loses faith in you. Don’t make them drag you out.

Well let me flush that out for you a little

The BC conservative party has been around forever, and until the year before the last election it polled at about 1 to 1.5% most years. It hasn't won an election since the 40s. It was basically a dead party where a few crock pots would occasionally join up and get drunk over pizzas talking about how to run the country.

The two parties of consequence were the BC liberals, which was actually an amalgam of the BC reform right-wing party and the actual liberal left-wing party, and the NDP.

So runstad is working for the liberals at the time, has a disagreement with them and leaves the party. Manages to take over the conservative party.

Due to a series of freak circumstances the conservatives suddenly started getting noticed and began to get a lot of attention in the polls. I think people could use them with the CPC and the liberal party began to fall apart.

Suddenly before the election it was crystal clear that there was going to be a split vote and the conservatives were slightly ahead so the liberals collapsed their party and everybody jump ship to join the conservative party to present a united front and win the election

This happens over a month or so, it is brutally fast, there are many hurt feelings because not everybody can run in the writing of their choice now and some long time hard-working liberals were thrown out on the street, and they went to the election and they damn near won. 

But now the election is over and everybody sits back and tries to breathe and figure out what the hell happened and what to do next. And suddenly everyone's looking around and realizing that they don't know a lot of the people they're working with and that there's a lot of disagreement. The fragment of the conservative party that was left was very right wing, and the liberals that jump ship were more Centrist or left of center. Now there's conflict. Some of the far right members break off and form a new party, some that are more to the left want to take over and throw out the current leader and basically turn it into a renamed liberal party. Some people just like to watch things burn and run around causing problems on purpose.

And that is the environment which led to the current circumstances. Do you remember those old game shows where they put people in a box and turn a big fan on and blow money around them and they had to catch the bills as they were flying around in a tornado? That's pretty much the circumstance he found himself in trying to hold on to his members.

We'll see if this process leads to a more stable circumstance or not

Edited December 6, 2025 by CdnFox

[herbie]

3 hours ago, blackbird said:

He was hardly dragged out.  He received 71% support of the party in a leadership review only a few months ago

From like only 1200 or so eligible party voters. 
A party kludged together only months before the election, that refused to endorse traditionally Conservative well knowns, could not whip extremists into line, purged people on petty personal reasons and in the end was dumped by party HQ.
And you want to call that leadership?

Or is this a mass move by some to follow Foxy into his sheer contrarianism that the sky is red for 12 pages and anyone claiming it's blue is a liar