John Rustad has won the Conservative Party of British Columbia’s leadership review, securing 70.66 percent of the vote from eligible party members—narrowly edging past the 70 percent benchmark he had set for himself prior to the vote. But even in victory, questions persist about his leadership, as the party appears to be fracturing on both the Left and Right flanks.
The vote took place across the province’s 93 ridings over the summer, with 1,268 valid ballots cast. Rustad prevailed in 78 ridings, lost in 10, tied in three, and in two ridings, no votes were cast. Despite touring the province to hold the vote locally, only about 15.9 percent of the party’s 8,000 members voted. The confidence vote’s legitimacy is being further questioned due to allegations of 2,000 fake sign-ups and ballot stuffing.
Almost simultaneously after the results were revealed publicly, the ongoing fragility of the party’s tenuous coalition revealed itself again. Elenore Sturko, MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, was removed from the B.C. Conservative caucus on Monday night. Sturko claims she was ousted because Rustad falsely accused her of plotting against his leadership.
“No, I wasn’t organizing any leadership campaign, although there are actually people within that caucus right now who are actively organizing leadership campaigns. But did I have conversations with other caucus members about the concerns that I have with these allegations of breaking the Elections Act? Yes, I did discuss that with other members,” Sturko told 1130 NewsRadio Tuesday.
Sturko, the party’s most prominent moderate and only openly gay MLA, who was previously part of the B.C. Liberals, caused a rift within the B.C. Conservative Party in 2024 when 13 B.C. Conservative MLAs wrote a letter to Rustad with concerns about her position supporting the firing of a Vancouver Police Board vice chair for previous incendiary comments.
“I don’t envy John Rustad…he has former B.C. Liberals in his tent, and then he has strong conservatives…it’s a coalition of conservatives that he has, with a…former B.C. Liberal aspect. So there’s a wide range of opinions even amongst his membership,” B.C. Conservative Party board member Allie Blades told The Hub.
“The theories that politicos in B.C. talk about…that [MLAs] were busy trying to organise their leadership campaigns if the path for an opening became available,” Blades said regarding the lack of involvement of many caucus members in Rustad’s confidence vote.
Sturko is only the latest caucus member who’s no longer with the B.C. Conservatives since the 2024 election. Two MLAs, from the social conservative side of the party, defected after another MLA was booted from the party.
According to The Hub B.C. correspondent Kirk LaPointe, another half-dozen MLAs threatened in a letter to resign if Rustad didn’t resign yesterday. LaPointe also noted that Rustad has “fought with the party president, parted with its treasurer, changed his chief of staff, and dumped its research director.” Furthermore, a week ago, his caucus was discussing whether or not to force him to resign.
Rustad’s shaky footing with parts of the party is all the more remarkable after leading the B.C. Conservative Party from obscurity, in only a couple years, and after subsuming the B.C. Liberals.
According to Blades, the more progressive side of the B.C. Liberals are dissatisfied with Rustad’s leadership and may feel “politically homeless” because their party amalgamated with the B.C. Conservatives and has allowed social conservatives to stay in the party.
Rustad rose from being a backbencher (starting in 2005) of the now-defunct BC Liberal Party to two ministerial positions. He was ousted from the party in 2022 for questioning whether carbon dioxide emissions cause climate change. Rustad then ran and won the leadership of the B.C. Conservatives in early 2023. He led the Conservatives to regain official party status, nearly win power, and win 44 seats in the 2024 provincial election, the most the party had won in over 70 years.
Recent polls show the B.C. Conservatives are in a deadlock with the B.C. NDP, led by Premier David Eby. Nevertheless, Rustad remains unpopular with the electorate, holding only 28 percent favourability, per Angus Reid.
“The opinions of many [of the Conservative caucus members] will probably be heard by the end of the week…whether or not it was a good idea to keep John or not. I mean, the vote is the vote, so there’s nothing [they] can do about it,” Blades explained, noting that most of the MLAs are currently in Victoria for the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM).
Even with all of the dissension and issues—invalid memberships, internal opposition, defections, and caucus oustings—Rustad has emerged from this vote with an apparent mandate. The next few weeks will test whether that is enough to stabilize his leadership among his caucus and strengthen the party’s position heading into the next election.
Graeme Gordon is The Hub's Senior Editor and Podcast Producer. He has worked as a journalist contributing to a variety of publications, including CBC,…
